jhungary
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China has called on the Australian government to consider Japan’s wartime history when deciding whether to grant it a multibillion-dollar contract to build a new fleet of submarines.
China’s foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, pointedly said that Japan– one of three bidders for the contract due to be awarded later this year – was defeated in the second world war and Australia should take into account “the feelings of the people of Asian countries because of that part of history”.
Wang was speaking in Beijing on Wednesday alongside the Australian foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, after annual strategic talks between the two countries.
The post-meeting media conference was dominated by China’s apparent decision to deploy surface-to-air missile launchers to a disputed island in the South China Sea – with Wang defending Beijing’s “limited and necessary self-defence facilities”.
Bishop said the pair had exchanged “forthright, candid” views about the South China Sea and she had urged all countries to act with restraint and settle their disputes peacefully.
The ministers were also asked by reporters about the strategic dimensions of Australia’s forthcoming decision on the replacement for the Collins-class submarine fleet, for which the government sought Japanese, German and French construction proposals.
Wang flatly dismissed the notion that an Australian decision to buy submarines from Japan would constitute an effort to contain China’s rise.
“I don’t think that is the intention of Australia’s policy and I actually don’t think that any country or force in the world can stop that rise,” he said.
The minister referred to the second world war in explaining historical limits on Japan’s military posture.
“Japan was the country that was defeated,” he said.
“That is why for decades it has been asked to follow very strict constraints under a pacifist constitution and its domestic laws in terms of exporting weapons to other countries and cooperation in this regard.
“We do hope that, in this military cooperation with Japan, Australia will take into full account this historical context and take into consideration also the feelings of the people of Asian countries because of that part of history and we hope that Australia will use its concrete actions to support the peaceful development of Japan and the Japanese efforts to uphold this pacifist constitution, not otherwise.”
Bishop, who visited Tokyo earlier in the week before heading to Beijing, said Australia was deepening its strategic and defence relationships with a number of countries in the region, including China.
“Our interests are in obtaining a new submarine fleet that meets our capability requirements, our technological requirements in terms of range and capacity, and that’s what will drive the competitive evaluation process that is currently under way,” she said.
Australia faces a delicate balancing act responding to the rise of China, which is its biggest trading partner, and maintaining its long-standing alliance with the US, a strategic rival to China.
Australia supported the passage of Japan’s controversial security legislation to reinterpret the country’s pacifist constitution. The legislation, passed last year, allows Japan to exercise collective self-defence, or coming to the aid of an ally, even if Japan is not directly threatened.
In their remarks on Wednesday, both Wang and Bishop welcomed the implementation of the China-Australia free trade agreement, which took effect in December.
China says Australia should consider Japan's war history before submarine contract