Thank you.
That's where the “stabilization” word becomes incredibly important.
In fact, there were a number of high-level meetings between the Australian and Chinese governments last year, but the meeting in question, I think, was at APEC. Of course, there was also a visit to China by the Australian prime minister in, I think, October of last year. These are key markers in the stabilization journey for Australia.
What that brings us to is a normalization of diplomatic dialogue. Of course, you need diplomatic dialogue with countries where you have differences. China lifting some, but not quite all, of the coercive economic measures—the sanctions it placed on a range of Australian exports—and the beginning of a larger conversation about the relationship do not equal trust, in my view. It does not, in my view, equal enormous ambition from Australia for the bilateral relationship.
The damage is done. I think the Australian population largely has a much higher level of distrust of the PRC than they did five or 10 years ago. Yes, we have a little bit of confrontation fatigue, I might say. There are parts of the Australian society and economy that obviously want to get on with looking for economic opportunities with China and elsewhere in the world. There are many parts of society and the business community that of course would prefer that we live in a world where the risk of military confrontation is not real, but I think there is now, quietly, an awareness that conflict is a reality in the 21st century. Ukraine has reminded us of that. We're not going back to the relationship of, say, 2015.
My final point to note is that the terrible outcome last week with the sentencing of Dr. Yang Hengjun, in my view, effectively ends the improvement in the relationship.
The relationship may not deteriorate again in the near term, but it's very difficult to see how an Australian government can, in any kind of self-respecting way, now keep calling for stabilization across the board or trust across the board. It just needs to look to managing the improvement that it's had and at the same time continue to build up its own security capabilities, alliances and partnerships— AUKUS is obviously very important in that regard—and help to discourage China from further destabilizing behaviour.