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SYDNEY (AFP)--A row over Australia's relations with China grew
more heated Monday as the opposition rejected accusations it was
playing the race card and reviving fears of the "yellow peril."
Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, who heads the conservative
Liberal Party, dismissed as "contemptible" the claim that he was
trying to stir up anti-China sentiment.
Turnbull had accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a
Chinese-speaking avowed Sinophile, of acting like a "roving
ambassador" for Beijing by pressing for China to be given a bigger
role in the International Monetary Fund.
The opposition leader also attacked defence minister Joel
Fitzgibbon's failure to declare two trips to China paid for by a
Beijing-born businesswoman.
In response, finance minister Lindsay Tanner accused Turnbull of
"trying to stir up some more yellow peril sentiments, frankly."
Yellow peril was a racist term commonly used in the early 1900s,
when many Australians feared Asia's large population coveted their
country's wide open spaces and was intent on invading.
Turnbull responded Monday by accusing Tanner of avoiding the
central issue of the national interest and raising "specters of
racism and casting back to bygone eras."
Tanner's remarks "suggest we should just fall into line with
whatever China wants," Turnbull told the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is in charge while Rudd
is in London for the G20 meeting this week, defended the integrity
of Australia's relationship with Beijing, calling China an
"emerging superpower."
The government had to engage with the Asian giant because of its
role and size in the region and its position as Australia's second
biggest trading partner, she told ABC radio.
Gillard accused the opposition of making "absurd propositions"
in trying to create concern about some kind of conspiracy between
the government and China.
The controversy has been fuelled by newspaper reports that two
senior Chinese government officials have travelled to Australia for
talks with Rudd without local media being informed of the
meetings.
The visits - by security and intelligence chief Zhou Yongkang
last year and by propaganda chief Li Changchun last week - were
reported by Chinese media but no information was provided locally,
the Sydney Morning Herald said.
The row comes against the backdrop of intense debate in
Australia over moves by Chinese state-owned entities to buy into
the country's vast resource base.
Politicians from both ends of the political spectrum have
questioned whether Australia is ceding control of its vast natural
reserves by allowing state-owned Chinese companies to pump billions
of dollars into resource firms.
The issue has been brought into sharp focus by Aluminum Corp. of
China Ltd. (ACH)'s proposed $19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto
Ltd. (RIO.AU) and China Minmetals' AUD$2.6 billion ($1.76 billion)
takeover bid for OZ Metals.
The Rio deal is still under consideration but the government
announced last week that the Oz Minerals takeover couldn't proceed
if it included a major mine in a restricted military area used for
rocket testing.
Foreign minister Stephen Smith said Monday Australia's relations
with Beijing were too important to be compromised by party
political attacks and that Turnbull was sending mixed messages.
"At the end of last week and over the weekend Mr. Turnbull and
some of his frontbenchers were out there effectively beating an
anti-China drum.
"Now today we have Mr. Turnbull saying our relationship with
China is very important."
Asked about reports that a cyber-espionage network based mostly
in China has infiltrated government and private computers around
the world, Smith said he was confident Australian intelligence
networks were secure.