Chinese Regime Cancels Official’s Australia Visit

Just as tension between Australia and China over detained mining executives seemed to be easing – comes another blow.

The Australian government said Tuesday that the Chinese regime had canceled Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei’s visit to Australia in an apparent tit for tat protest at the Australian government.

The vice foreign minister was supposed to have led a delegation to the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns earlier this month. His place was taken by a lower-level official.

The Chinese regime canceled the visit after Australia granted exiled Uigher activist Rebiya Kadeer a visa to visit the country at the beginning of August.

The Chinese regime accuses Kadeer of inciting riots between ethnic Uighers and Han Chinese in China’s Xinjiang region last month. An accusation that she denies.

Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith expressed his regret at China’s decision.

[Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister]:
“Australia very much regrets that China has decided to effect that response, we very much regret it.”

And resisted opposition criticism about the governments stance towards China.

[Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister]:
“I vaguely remember the leader of the opposition saying to the government sometime ago that we should stand up to China, we did on the Rebiya Kadeer issue.”

While in Australia, Kadeer attended the Melbourne Film Festival, which screened a documentary about her struggle to help China’s Uighers gain greater autonomy. The Chinese regime had pressured the festival to drop the film.

But Kadeer’s visit is not the only issue that’s strained relations between the two nations. Disputes over iron ore prices in july and the Chinese regime’s recent arrest of several employees of the British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto also contributed to the tension.

The atmosphere seemed to be cooling last week when the Chinese regime dropped spying charges against the Rio Tinto employees. But, these latest developments show there is still a need for careful diplomacy.

(NTDTV)