China’s Foreign Minister has told Julie Bishop that Australia needs to remove its “tinted glasses” and “translate its words into concrete actions” to improve ties after tensions over Beijing’s anger with recent political moves by Canberra.
The terse remarks followed a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Ms Bishop on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ conference in Argentina, and produced markedly different responses from the two sides.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang quoted Mr Wang as telling Ms Bishop that Australia needed to “take off tinted glasses [and] see China’s development from a positive perspective” if it really wanted to get relations back on track.
“Tinted glasses” is Chinese diplomatic shorthand for what it sees as Western bias.
“China-Australia relations have gone through difficulties recently, which even inflicted impacts on bilateral cooperation in some aspects. That is not what we want,” Mr Lu quoted Mr Wang as saying.
“We hope Australia will genuinely translate its words into concrete actions.
“Australia must correct its understanding first in order to promote the development of China-Australia relations.”
Ms Bishop, in contrast, was upbeat about the exchange, describing it as “very warm and candid and constructive”.
“I get on very well with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, we’ve known each other for a very long time,” she told the ABC.
“Australia will continue to approach our bilateral relationship with goodwill and realism and pragmatism and open communication.”