Keynote address by Kerry Stokes AC The China Dream to share a future of mutual benefit Good morning Ladies & Gentlemen, Before I talk about China, let me start with Australia. Listening to me, I don t think there s any doubt that I m an Australian I can promise you the Chinese have no doubts as they often struggle to understand me - even with the best interpreters. So I look at the world, through my prism of Australian culture, through Australian eyes. In Australia, we tend to think of our heritage, as the Anzacs, Gallipoli, Tobruk and Kokoda. At that time Australia was most afraid that we might be invaded. China was invaded. It has a history of invasions. Australia had the attacks on Broome and Darwin and the Japanese Submarine sneaking into Sydney Harbour, but in China, millions of their people were massacred. No sooner had the conflict finished; there was a national war, which resulted in the Chinese Communists ruling the country. Only a decade or so later, tens of millions of people starved to death. Out of all that, the Chinese Government and their Communist Party, evolved their policy, to lead the people of China to their future. They moved more people out of poverty in the last 30 years than ever in world history. The hardship they ve endured, has built a resilience, a strength of purpose and a passion for tomorrow. They see the future as being better than the past as we all do. But for them, their past is still a recent memory - so tumultuous and so full of struggle, that tomorrow, offers opportunity of prosperity. And that s the Chinese Dream. China has chosen to share their dream with us and other nations. China has chosen to share the opportunities and the rewards all of which are not without challenges. Only in April last year, in an incredible show of faith, one of the most significant & respected leaders in China, wrote an article which was agreed by China to be published in Australia. 1
It was a very public endorsement of China s faith in our media, that his views were published in our newspaper, the West Australian. In essence, he expressed China s confidence and prospects of a bright future between our two countries. This was based, not just on confidence but on respect. It was perhaps Henry Kissinger, who best understood how to work with China, as he set out to gain a deeper understanding of how the Chinese operate and do business. In fact, his book On China is a must read for anyone interested in China. Our current relationship with China was initiated by Gough Whitlam 40 years ago. He had the courage and foresight to visit China and lay the foundations to open up our relationships. Successive Prime Ministers such as Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard played their part in understanding and developing mutual trust and respect. This year we celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations. One of my great memories of China was being able to talk to the former Premier of China, His Excellency Jiang Zemin. I was honoured to be among a handful of international media representatives including Henry Kissinger who had a private meeting at the State Guest House in Beijing 2002 with the Premier and his ministers and advisors. It was a time when many of the Chinese leaders were excited about their country s growing relationship in Australia - a relationship that was being built on mutual respect and understanding. China had just placed its largest order that allowed the creation of the North West Shelf. A $30 billion order with Woodside. I asked the Premier why would he place an order twice as much as Shell had offered for similar field and supply in Bangladesh. The Premier was also quite chuffed and honoured that the then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, had gone out of his way to travel to a remote province outside of Beijing to meet with him and to ask him for the business. This show of respect from our leader at the time went a long way to sealing and securing the first long-term agreement between our two countries for gas supply. This mutual respect was instrumental in the historic visit to his first foreign capital by China s current President Hu Jintao, in 2003, where he was invited to address a joint sitting in parliament Canberra. President Hu was familiar with Australia. His foreign affairs minister, Zhou Wenzhong was the former Chinese Ambassador to Australia, during the time of our Olympics. 2
President Hu showed enormous respect to Australia in visiting our nation so soon after his appointment. The Chinese have never come here to Australia to criticise. In nearly 20 years of dealings with China, I haven t ever heard any leader or senior Chinese official, either publicly or privately, be critical of Australia, Australians, or our way of life. They want to talk of doing business, and they do so based on competitive pricing and on mutual respect and mutual benefit, creating long term opportunities for both countries. China s focus has always been about the long-term reliable supply of resources to grow their businesses and their economy and to give their people prosperity. They look to us to export not just our natural resources, but also our knowledge, our laws and our cultural activities to encourage and promote trade and cultural exchange. Quite simply, they wish to encourage development and trade. One of their largest exports is Capital. They are now the trading nation. It s not just an exciting time for China s progress, it s a pivotal time - a watershed moment for the world. Not since the Industrial Revolution has there been a period like now certainly never in our region and it s our region that I am most concerned with. Just 3 decades ago, it was more economical and indeed standard practice to use labourers with wheel barrows because it was too expensive to pay for the fuel for modern equipment. Today, the Chinese are not only using the most sophisticated equipment in the world, they are manufacturing it too. It is not uncommon for a village community to collaborate to buy an excavator and for the community to work that excavator as a means of gaining income for the village. The philosophy is simple. The first objective for all of China s leaders has been to feed their people and that was difficult enough with their population - the closest we can come to even contemplating what that was like would be for those of us old enough to remember food rations after the War a far cry however from being hungry. This new trading country is an historic change for China. The Middle Kingdom that was so remote and removed from the world, now reaches out as the world largest trading country. And in reaching out they create prosperity for their nation and ours. Their encouragement is not just to trade with us, they are also anxious for us to do business in China. The fact that we haven t taken advantage of that has more to do with our inability to be able to compete successfully in their markets on their playing field. 3
It can t be forgotten that China is still a developing nation and although standards have lifted dramatically across the 1.3 billion population it is still a developing nation going through rapid growth and consequential changes, economically and socially. One important aspect that we as Australians forget and continue to forget is that China has its own views. And apart from its political views, the Chinese people form their own opinions. They see criticisms on their way of life and what they believe in, not only as unjustified, but also as personal attacks on their systems. Rather than seeing this incredible development as a threat from China, we should be embracing it. I d like to take you on a journey. China had not really been on my radar, until I had a call from David Armstrong, the former Editor of both the Canberra Times and The Australian Newspaper and later the South China Morning Post. I had just got involved in Channel Seven, it was the early 90 s, and I received a phone call from David, telling me that he believed Seven had got involved with some unscrupulous dealings. He d been told about this information by one his investigative reporters her name was Kennis Chu. A very smart reporter and later a very good executive still with us today. Apparently some of our guys had sent 10 million dollars and about to send another 10 million to these people in Hong Kong, who claimed they could get us TV licences in China. David was at pains to tell me that we were just doing our dough. We changed the locks on our small office in Hong Kong. I poached Kennis Chu (much to David s dismay) and set about to recover our funds. It s important to note that the people behind all of this trouble, were not Chinese. So with Kennis on board, we set about testing what we could do in China, we started modestly by selling TV programmes. We found a niche and started re-voicing Japanese and Korean cartoons into Mandarin. It grew into a successful business for the next 6 years until a change in censorship required local production. But by then we had moved on and had been through the ambitions of making local productions, period dramas and joint ventures with major TV networks in China. 4
A lot of which had reasonable success some of which including a couple of reels of Chinese versions of Home and Away probably sitting on a shelf in Shanghai gathering dust! One of the early advantages was that the Chairman of the local television stations was usually the local Provincial Party secretary. So we had the opportunity of getting to understand the Party which was an important part of our early cultural exchange. I don t have time to tell you today of all my involvements in China and the experiences we ve had, including an incredible Olympic partnership with Seven Network and the Beijing Olympic committee. What I can tell you from my experiences and involvement with China is a future with China is not one of opposition, but of Engagement. In my view, somehow Australia has gone off track. The mood has changed. There was a time, until recently where Chinese students filled our Universities. Education was a major export industry. Our Number three export in value after Coal & Iron Ore. We managed to make it so difficult between our bureaucracy and fear of security, that it is just so much easier to go to America where they not only offer the courses we used to offer, but they ve allowed a 3 year work experience after they ve graduated from American universities. It s also easier to get a tourism visa from China to America, than it is for a Chinese national to get a tourist visa to Australia. We need to address these issues fully. One of the changes has been in social media and its dramatic change in China, with millions of people on blogs, which has seen a transformation of public opinion. It s within social media that there is an uneasiness towards Australia s attitude to China. It s in these blogs that they talk of their concern that we consider China an adversary our defence White Paper for example. It is within these blogs that they talk of the concern that Australia has chosen between China and America. We do not need to do so but an impression was created. It s within these blogs that the feeling towards our country has changed. Chinese leaders have always been extremely courteous and respectful. They won t say what the Chinese people are saying on their social media. We should not ignore the Blogosphere - voice of the people the Chinese leadership are also very mindful of this. 5
There are many ways of building our bridges between China and Australia. We need to move beyond the supplier of volatile-priced resources to being a cooperative partner to China, sharing ideas, processes and culture and creating the environment for other opportunities to grow both within Australia and China. Resources are finite so a build of services like education which is people the renewable resource is vital. China still wants Australia to invest. They still desire a partnership built on mutual respect with mutually beneficial outcomes. I ve heard and read about many Australians who seem to have great knowledge of working in China and understanding China, particularly our politicians - on both sides - some of whom have been disrespectful - and some of whom just talk about how difficult things are. Maybe they have the wrong attitude, or the wrong facts. They call for a change in the systems in China. They do this publicly in China. It s difficult to imagine anything more disrespectful. I don t share their concerns or their negative stance. For my companies, doing business in China is not a hardship. Tough market yes but we successfully and respectfully do business in China. Allow me to share just one example. In the year 2000, during the Sydney Olympics, we entered into our Caterpillar business in China with WesTrac China - the Mayor of Beijing did me the courtesy of witnessing our agreement. Back then, we employed 300 people. Today we employ close to 3000 people. Our equipment, sales and services are both made in China and supplied from America. The Chinese don t discriminate against me as an Australian, nor the fact that I sell American equipment. Apart from price and service, both of which are paramount, it s the relationships and understanding and mutual respect for each other. It s the way we conduct ourselves that is the key to doing business in China. Australia has never had to make a choice between who we are and what we stand for; what is best for our country is in doing business on any level with China. 6
On a national scale, I encourage the business leaders and politicians to grasp the opportunities and work towards an outcome where both nations benefit. China has never placed any special conditions on our involvement. China has sought to invest in the resources it buys, it has sought to partner us as a food supply, to embrace food security. The sooner we get back to being concerned only with what works for Australia and for China, the longer and the better our opportunities will be. We mustn t forget that like any other trading nation, our goods and services have a value. In the future, there will be other nations around the world who will challenge us by providing what we offer at more competitive prices. We will want to be in a position where our prices are not only the reason we trade with China because if price is the only reason, we will lose. In closing, I d like to quote the article published in the West Australian last year by His Excellency Jia Qinglin, the Chairman of the Chinese People s Political Consultative Conference of the PRC. There are bright prospects for the China-Australia relationship because it is built on a solid foundation. We are full of confidence in the future of our relationship As the old saying goes, those who cease to dream are lost. China and Australia share the same dream of improving our peoples wellbeing. A better China-Australia relationship can contribute to it, if we seize the opportunities, make new progress with a pioneering spirit and advance our cooperative relations And all this can be achieved through a prism of Australian values and benefits to our nation. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. *** 7