.21 Century, Australia's China Policy And Its Effect On Sino-australian Relations

China and Australia are important countries in the Asia-Pacific region, China policy is an important part of Australian's foreign policy. Since 1949, Australian's China policy has changed for several times.In 1949 when People's Republic of China was founded, influenced by the cold war, Australia government pursued a policy of not recognizing PRC and confronting PRC following US China policy, leading to the stalemate of China-Australia relationship for more than 20 years.In 1970s, influenced by its own national interests and the international situation, Australia government changed its hostile attitude towards China and established formal diplomatic relationship with PRC. Then the bilateral political relationship and economic cooperation began to develop, the bilateral trade volume in 1989 reached 1.895 billion US dollars, and the two-way investment grew fast. At that time, the military contacts began to develop.In 1989, Australia took some sanction measures in China-Australia relations. However, in 1991, Australia government gave up the sanction measures, taking new steps to amend the bilateral relationship, especially concentrating on developing bilateral relations, especially economic relations.In the new century, the bilateral economic contacts have been further reinforced; China became Australia's largest two-way trading partner (imports and exports of both goods and services) in 2007."These figures show there is much potential for our trade to grow even further, which is why we are working hard to negotiate a free trade agreement with China①."In the security field, the two countries have strengthened their cooperation, the bilateral military dialogue and personnel exchanges have continued smoothly. Until now, the two countries have held ten rounds of strategic defense consultation; in 2007, Chinese navy fleet visited Australia and held a joint maritime search and rescue exercises with Australia and New Zealand navy fleets, showing that the two countries are deepening mutual trust in military affairs.The civil personnel and culture exchanges have also expanded; the number of Chinese students studying in Australia has already reached 95700, and still grows at 20% annually. More and more Australian students come to China with the scholarship of Chinese experience program of Australia-China counsel.Influenced by the above factors, Australian's China policy has changed for the better, putting establishing powerful partnership with China as an important goal of Australian's foreign policy, dedicated to developing strategic economic partnership with China for the long-term trade and investment links, paving the way for future bilateral relations in all fields.