Yes, our relationships with China could become a problem in that I'm sure China will push hard for Philippines to not give the contract to an Australian Company - that's my greatest concern.
Our relationship with China was of our own making. The public criticism of china by Australia occurred immediately after a visit by US diplomats - it was under instruction form the US. Some Chinese artists responded with vile cartoons. I was astounded that our Prime Minister would respond to a re-tweet from a middle manager in the Chinese Foreign Ministry(of one of these cartoons). At most it should have been a middle manager in DFAT. When our esteemed PM got involved it escalated. It will go down in history as one of the greatest diplomatic bungles and will become a subject for study by various academics in the future in terms of economic and social cost. All the other nations(apart from US) said nothing and did not criticize China. There was some down the track after hard pushes from Aust and US to Japan and UK. In reality if our PM wanted to criticize for how China managed minority groups, there are many other countries with similar or worse behavior for which he is silent.
Let's hope that this diplomatic disaster does not sink the expectant ASB contract.
ASB Price at posting:
$1.86 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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