Akhil Ramesh

Opinion | Economic and trade realities in the US, Australia and India are thawing their relations with China

Albanese’s Australia has made restarting dialogue a priority, while in the US, Republican complaints reflect a growing sense of more Chinese investments being approved

In India, Chinese retail giant Shein’s app, banned after the 2020 border clash, is making a comeback even as carmakers import battery parts from China

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Akhil Ramesh

Published: 8:15am, 7 Aug 2023

Signs of a diplomatic thaw are emerging in the American, Australian and Indian relationships with China.

Since April, the Biden administration has sent representatives to Beijing in an attempt to restart dialogue and discussion. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and even climate envoy John Kerry have all made trips to China to find ways to stabilise ties.

Similarly, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and BRICS meetings, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met China’s top diplomat Wang Yi who urged that the bilateral relationship not be defined by a single issue, in a reference to Sino-Indian border disputes.

Still, after the Indian media highlighted a Chinese foreign ministry readout of the Wang-Doval meeting which said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had reached a consensus on stabilising relations at the G20 summit in Bali in November last year, India’s ministry of external affairs clarified that while the two leaders discussed ways to stabilise relations on the summit’s sidelines, there was no consensus. Nevertheless, there are signs of a thaw all around.

Australia is way ahead of the other two and has been approaching the stabilising of its relations with China with a sense of urgency. Since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took office, there has been a concerted effort by both the business community and policymakers to restart dialogue. Australian businessmen have travelled to Beijing to discuss trade and business issues.

Furthermore, Australia openly advocates for more stable relations between the United States and China. When Kevin Rudd met US President Joe Biden to present his credentials as Australian ambassador, the former prime minister told Biden he would work to improve the US-China relationship.