Ex-PM failed on China, says paper
Originally published by The Australian, 15 Sept 2010
By Rowan Callick and Michael Sainsbury
BEIJING’S People’s Daily has accused Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd of failing to recognise China’s importance during his prime ministership.
The criticism came even though he is a China expert.
The assessment by the flagship newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party illustrates the challenges ahead for the government, with Julia Gillard due to attend three momentous meetings in the region in the next few weeks: the East Asia Summit, the G20 summit and the APEC leaders’ meeting.
The Indonesian government has welcomed Kevin Rudd’s appointment as Foreign Minister but said it wants the Prime Minister to take the lead in promoting top-level relations.
China’s People’s Daily said on Monday that “even as a zhongguo tong (China expert)”, Mr Rudd “did not realise fully the importance of China to Australia, to the Asia-Pacific region, and even to the world’s development and security”.
Wang Dong, professor of international relations at Peking University, told The Australian this week that “Rudd certainly has the capability to be foreign minister, and China has expectations that he will improve the bilateral relationship”.
The free trade agreement negotiations should be accelerated, he said. “There is a lot of work to do. There are feelings of distrust towards China in trade, regional and military affairs, and by the Australian public.”
Mr Rudd’s work with Indonesia is based on a solid start. As prime minister, he had often been in direct contact with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, especially on the subjects of people-smuggling, climate change and promoting the G20 grouping.
This personal association was one reason that Indonesian foreign policy circles were disappointed when he was ousted by Ms Gillard in June.
Diplomatic practice requires that Mr Rudd’s future dealings with Indonesia be through his counterpart, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said yesterday.
He added that while the choice of foreign minister was an internal matter for Australia, “Mr Rudd’s knowledge and experience of the region has contributed to the enhancement of bilateral relations”.
Ms Gillard’s proposal for a regional refugee processing centre in East Timor — about which Indonesia is dubious — should be discussed first between Canberra and Dili, “and we will not interfere”, Mr Faizasyah said.
He reiterated that Indonesia wanted the regional asylum-seeker issue dealt with through the Bali Process on people-smuggling, which involves more than 40 governments and refugee agencies.
Additional reporting: Peter Alford