Your Excellency, Mr Wen Jiabao the Premier of China, your ministerial colleagues, my ministerial colleagues, the Leader of the Opposition, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
It is with great warmth and enthusiasm that I welcome you here today, Mr Premier, as a further token of the remarkable way in which relations between our two countries has developed over the last decade. We began our day, as you will recall, walking very early in the morning as is my customary wont and I was delighted that you joined me on that walk and we chose to traverse the R.G. Menzies Walk; a walk around the lake in Canberra named after Australia's longest serving Prime Minister. And as I pointed out to you the photograph and the biographical details of Robert Gordon Menzies as Prime Minister of Australia, I thought to myself of the remarkable changes that have taken place in our two countries since his retirement in 1966 and the remarkable changes of course that have taken place in attitudes amongst the political leadership of either political persuasion in this country towards China.
And I had cause to reflect, as I did in our discussion today, that of all the important relationships that Australia has, and we have many and it is not my purpose today to engage the rather pointless exercise of trying to prioritise relationships, we do have a very important relationship with China. But I think it is accurate to say that of all the important relationships Australia has with other countries, none has undergone a greater transformation over the last decade or more as has our relationship with China. And that development is grounded in a number of things. It is grounded in commonsense; it is grounded in realism of both the opportunities of our relationship, but also the limitations of it. It is also grounded in a frank recognition of the differences that exist historically, culturally and politically between our two countries.
And the fact that we have both, particularly over recent years, but I suspect for a long time in different ways, we have both recognised that we are fundamentally different in so many ways, but that in an ironic sense, has enabled us to build rather more effectively on the things that we have in common and the strengths that we can derive from the relationship.
Australia of course is the sixth most continuous democracy in history and therefore our political system is very different from that of China's. But the growth and development of China is truly historic. And as I said in a speech I gave in New York at the time of the General Assembly gathering last September I believe that the economic expansion and the outward development of China is not only good for China, it is also very good for the world. And it follows from that, that we welcome China's growth and China's development. We see it in a positive light. We do not see any merit at all in any policy of containment towards China; rather we see it very much in the interests of this country, the interests of our region and indeed the interests of the world to be an active partner in that long journey that China has begun to undertake towards realising her full potential.
Of course the growth of Australia's economic relationship with China has been truly astounding. There are many figures that can be individually a metaphor for this but perhaps none is better than to say that our exports to China have quadrupled in the last decade. Now that has been largely, but not entirely driven by the remarkable expansion in the resource sector. China's growing demand for energy to underpin and guarantee her economic growth and development demands satisfaction. And Australia, providentially, has the resources to assist that process.
But it would be wrong to see the economic relationship between Australia and China exclusively in terms of resource development, important though that is. Shortly before this lunch I gathered together some of the business leaders of our country who have very heavy investments and involvement in China and it covered the whole gamut of our trading capacity. We had, of course, leaders of resource companies, we also had vice chancellors of universities, managing partners of large legal firms, of insurance companies; and it was a reminder that this is a very broad relationship.
China is Australia's largest source of students. It is the second largest source of migrants. It is the most rapidly growing, or one of the most rapidly growing rather, sources of tourism and its estimated by some that the number of Chinese tourists coming to Australia by the year 2010 will exceed the number coming from Japan.
Now all of those things illustrate the breadth of the relationship. It's also a relationship built very much upon people-to-people links. I've often told Chinese leaders that the combination of Cantonese and Mandarin now represents the most widely spoken foreign language in this country, that Chinese, ethnic Chinese people bulk very large in many parts of metropolitan Australia and most particularly in Sydney.
There's a growing appetite for Chinese culture and an understanding of both the culture and the language of this remarkable country. I'm very pleased to note that a partnership between Asialink, the University of Melbourne and the Chinese Government will see the establishment of the Confucius Institute in Melbourne in the near future. And this will enable a greater understanding of, and a greater appreciation of, the Chinese language and Chinese culture.
China is asserting her legitimate interest as a significant power; now the third most powerful economy in the world. And in the process of asserting, those legitimate interests, of course, carry as part of the international community and a leading player in the international community, the responsibilities of that authority and that position. And amongst the many things that the Premier and I discussed earlier today were the challenges faced by the major powers; the permanent members, perhaps more accurately described, of the United Nations, by the nuclear issues concerning Iran.
And we agreed how very important it was to try and solve this problem through the processes of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency. And that can best indeed, perhaps only be achieved, if there is unity of purpose between and amongst the five members, permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
We in Australia recognise very much the positive contribution that China, as the nation having potentially the greatest influence on North Korea, the role that China has played in encouraging a sensible resolution of that challenge. We are still a long way from a solution and we continue to encourage China to exercise her undoubted influence on North Korea, an influence that exceeds that of any other country. Not only in our region but potentially around the world, of course, the relationship between China and the United States is crucial. As all of you will know, Australia has never played down or in any sense apologised for the closeness of our relationship with the United States. That relationship is deep; it's based on history and shared values and it's arguably stronger now than ever before.
But the strength and the depth of that relationship in no way affects or will it affect the capacity of Australia to interact with and form a close and lasting partnership and friendship with China. I take the optimistic view, not only in our region but also around the world of relations between the United States and China. I do not subscribe to the school to which some belong of an inevitable breakdown leading to potential conflict. I rather take the view that commonsense will prevail not only in relation to Taiwan but in relation to the wider interests of those two societies. The history of recent times suggests that there is a greater realisation of the need for that on all sides and it remains as part of our continuing commitment to the One China Policy, which I had the opportunity of reaffirming today in my discussions with the Premier, it remains our very strong exhortation to all concerned that we should maintain the lowest possible temperatures in relation to matters across the Taiwan Strait.
Mr Premier you come here as a leader of the largest nation numerically in the world, you come here as a leader of a nation with which Australians have not only a growing interest but a growing fascination. There is much that we can build together, we do have differences and our willingness over the years to frankly recognise those differences and not pretend otherwise and to not engage in phoney embraces of common attitudes and common values that simply don't exist, has been, I believe, the secret of the success of the relationship. In my personal experience I have not forgotten a meeting I had with the former President of China Jiang Zemin in the margins of the first APEC meeting that I attended in Manila in 1996 that took place in the wake of a rather difficult period in the relationship between Australia and China. At that meeting both of us identified the need to focus on those things where we could find common ground and whilst in no way retreating from our respective positions in relation to other issues, not to allow those differences to contaminate the broader relationship and that has been the approach that the Government and I believe the people in the business community of Australia have taken over the years.
Our relationship with China is broad, it's growing; the presence here today of so many business leaders is testament to the strength of the economic relationship. But as all relationships will tell us, it's those deeper people-to-people links that are very important. They are substantial they are growing and they are respectful on both sides so far as Australia and China are concerned. To you sir, as somebody who's had a very successful interesting and remarkable political career in your own country; any student of recent Chinese political history will read your resume, if I might put it that way, with great admiration and great appreciation. Your personality, your engaged commitment to the cause of better relations between our two countries is something that I very deeply appreciate.
We welcome you here for what you are as an individual leader but also for what you represent as a leader of a remarkable nation which is destined to play an even greater role in the affairs of the world and a nation with which Australia seeks to build an ever-closer and more effective and more permanent partnership. I now have great pleasure in inviting the Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Kim Beazley to support my remarks. Thank you.
[ends]