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The nominal reason for the visit to Perth was to attend the Australia-China Friendship Society National Conference. This year is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and Australia, an entirely pragmatic decision; it really didn't make sense to recognise the Republic of China with a total area of 36K km^2 and a population of 15.5M (1972) over the PRC with 9.6M km2 and 862M. At the time, then opposition leader Gough Whitlam visited the PRC in 1971 and announced impending recognition upon election; conservatives were aghast that Labor would lead Australia to recognise "Red China", as it was called by the media in those days. They were suddenly a lot less vocal when Nixon announced his impending visit several days later. Today, the PRC makes up 43% of Australia's exports by value, almost four times greater than any other single national market (Japan comes in second at 11%) and is the largest import country as well, at 29%. Despite the occasional sabre-rattling, it probably should also be noted that the PRC is the largest import and export partner for the RoC.
The conference opened on Friday night with a small (c50 people) but impressive dinner at Hotel Northbridge and a pretty decent address by Stuart Crockett, the former West Australia Trade Commissioner to China. The main day of conference proceedings was attended by over 200 people, and it was one of those occasions when everyone in the room was quite notable. Even the photographer I was chatting with turned out to be recently returned from Ukraine as his "day job" is a war photographer. There was a truly impressive Welcome to Country by Barry Winmar (and I surprised myself by how much Noongar language I could recall), there was an address by the Premier of WA, Mark McGowan (I managed to get a brief conversation in), the PRC ambassador to Australia, Xiao Chan, and Professor and Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall - we really bounced off with each other well. Later I encountered a children's author, Frances Maber, who I used to know from Murdoch University days over 30 years ago.
That evening was the gala dinner for the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, attended by over 500 people with opera and soprano singers, and some rather superb dining. The State MP for South Perth, Geoff Baker, gave an address; this is particularly notable as it we went to the same nightclubs again about 30 years ago. As we were chatting one of the waiting staff turned up: "Lev! I haven't seen you for years" - it was Peter J., who I also haven't seen for a similar period of time. My poor brain thought I'd stepped into a Twilight Zone version of "This Is Your Life". Finally, the following day, there was a short Annual General Meeting of the Society where outgoing president Robin Matthews run the show like clockwork and Anthony Leong gave an address on Chinese representation in the Australian media - which interestingly included a great deal of what he described in his presentation to the Isocracy Annual General Meeting earlier this year. All in all, there was a sense of relief and cautious optimism among all attendees that the new Federal government would be at least sane and realistic in its dealings with the PRC and certainly, Simon Wu, the WA branch, and the numerous volunteers deserve accolades for running such an excellent conference.
The conference opened on Friday night with a small (c50 people) but impressive dinner at Hotel Northbridge and a pretty decent address by Stuart Crockett, the former West Australia Trade Commissioner to China. The main day of conference proceedings was attended by over 200 people, and it was one of those occasions when everyone in the room was quite notable. Even the photographer I was chatting with turned out to be recently returned from Ukraine as his "day job" is a war photographer. There was a truly impressive Welcome to Country by Barry Winmar (and I surprised myself by how much Noongar language I could recall), there was an address by the Premier of WA, Mark McGowan (I managed to get a brief conversation in), the PRC ambassador to Australia, Xiao Chan, and Professor and Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall - we really bounced off with each other well. Later I encountered a children's author, Frances Maber, who I used to know from Murdoch University days over 30 years ago.
That evening was the gala dinner for the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, attended by over 500 people with opera and soprano singers, and some rather superb dining. The State MP for South Perth, Geoff Baker, gave an address; this is particularly notable as it we went to the same nightclubs again about 30 years ago. As we were chatting one of the waiting staff turned up: "Lev! I haven't seen you for years" - it was Peter J., who I also haven't seen for a similar period of time. My poor brain thought I'd stepped into a Twilight Zone version of "This Is Your Life". Finally, the following day, there was a short Annual General Meeting of the Society where outgoing president Robin Matthews run the show like clockwork and Anthony Leong gave an address on Chinese representation in the Australian media - which interestingly included a great deal of what he described in his presentation to the Isocracy Annual General Meeting earlier this year. All in all, there was a sense of relief and cautious optimism among all attendees that the new Federal government would be at least sane and realistic in its dealings with the PRC and certainly, Simon Wu, the WA branch, and the numerous volunteers deserve accolades for running such an excellent conference.
