Former Australian diplomats John Lander （top left), Bruce Haigh (top right), Chen Hong (bottom-left), president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies and director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, discuss about China-Australia relations during Global Minds Roundtable on March 6.

One has to admire China for its forbearance in seeking to maintain the bilateral relationship when Australia has been behaving like a petulant child, experts agreed at an online forum on China-Australia relations held by Global Times on Monday.

February and March 2023 witnessed breakthroughs in high-level talks between China and Australia, including those between trade ministers and foreign ministers. As observers tend to think the downward spiral of the bilateral relationship has been put on pause, there are twists and turns that cannot be ignored, to which, experts believe the root cause lies in Australia, during the Global Times' Global Minds Roundtable on China-Australia Relations attended by three experts from China and Australia.

Australian media outlets have played a role in fanning the flames of the troubled China-Australia ties and beating the drum of war against China, clamoring Australia is facing "the threat of war with China." Take two of the most recent cases. A Sky News Australia special investigation into so-called the mainland's growing threat of war against Taiwan island, released in February, shows a hypothetical scenario about how a global conflict between the US and China would be sparked. Early March, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age assembled panel of national security experts, warning a war with China could come as early as 2026.

Experts stressed that this is all about a propaganda war. "The media and so called experts work together in concerted efforts to mislead the public. Then policymakers will push for changes to the policies to be more hostile to China," said Chen Hong, president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies and director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University during the roundtable discussion.

Sky News Australia is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who represents one of the great pillars of the Western and particularly US capitalism, experts said. "He is very much tied up with the permanent establishment in Washington that rotates from one administration to another, which has been driving the US military policy for many years," said John Lander, a former Australian diplomat, adding Murdoch is basically working hand in glove with them to conduct the disinformation campaign, the propaganda war against China.

The deterioration of China-Australia ties was initiated by Canberra in 2017. This was the consensus reached during the roundtable discussion.

2017 was when then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced the foreign interference laws, which were directed at supposed interference by China in Australia's political affairs. And it was driven mainly by a change in the US attitude toward China at around that time, former Australia diplomat John Lander pointed out.

It was also the year when Donald trump took office, whose administration pushed forward Indo-Pacific Strategy with unveiled aim to deter, impede China's developments. And Australia has been since tailing behind Washington to act as an eager pioneer of the US' anti-China strategy, Chen said.

"You've got to admire China for its forbearance and in seeking to maintain the relationship and to build the relationship in the face of what is a rather puerile response on the part of Australian policymakers," Australian diplomatic and political commentator Bruce Haigh, who is also a former diplomat, said during the roundtable.

This was echoed by Lander, who also believed "China has demonstrated the most remarkable forbearance and patience with Australia. Australia has been behaving like a petulant child."

Haigh went on and noted he has written since he was a diplomat, but given the current political atmosphere in Australia, no one is listening to realistic voices.

A forum like this is very heartening, he said, yet he is so far not optimistic about where the leverage is going to come on Australia. "We don't have an opposition in Australia. It's collapsed because of the nature of the corruption that the liberal national party represents. There's nobody holding a mirror up to government in Australia. The Media in Australia is not holding a mirror up to the government."

For Australia, there is an uphill battle in terms of resetting its ties with China, Haigh emphasized.