EMBASSY: CHINA STILL A DEVELOPING ECONOMY
Australian PM’s suggestion ‘unfair’ as Beijing has long way to go to achieve full modernisation
CHINA has labelled Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call for the Asian powerhouse to be recognised as a developed economy as “one-sided and unfair”.
“The assertion of China being a ‘newly developed economy’ by the Australian side doesn’t hold much water,” said Beijing’s Australian embassy in a statement in response to Morrison’s claim, made during his United States tour earlier this week.
“It is basically an echo of what the US has claimed.”
Following Morrison’s comments in Chicago on Monday, President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that China, the world’s second-largest economy, shouldn’t be permitted to declare itself a developing nation to “game the system”.
Trump, who met with Morrison at the White House for security talks during the Australia’s leader’s visit, claims China has unfairly benefited by exploiting trade imbalances that have damaged American manufacturing industries and export revenue.
Morrison on Wednesday wrapped up his six-day visit to the US, which was designed to strengthen Australia’s alliance with Washington while still balancing relations with his country’s biggest-trading partner, China.
Those ties have become strained, and he told the audience in Chicago the world’s institutions now needed to adjust their settings for China, in recognition of its new developed status.
That’s now been rejected by China, potentially creating a new source of tension with Australia.
“China is still a developing country, which is widely acknowledged by the international community,” said the embassy in the statement, adding per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in the country is less than US$10,000 (RM41,948), or about 16 per cent of US per capita GDP and 17 per cent of Australia’s.
“China still has a long way to go to achieve full modernisation,” it said.