CANBERRA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye on Thursday called on local media to play a constructive role in Sino-Australian relations.
"I hope that they could look at China not through tainted glasses, not through ideological mentality, not with a sense of superiority of the Western civilization," he said at a pool interview.
Major Australian media were invited, including The Australian, the Australian Financial Review (AFR), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Nine News and Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), among others.
At the event, the ambassador talked about the close trade and people-to-people links between the two countries.
He noted that Australian export to China during the first 10 months of this year reached about 124 billion Australian dollars (about 85.3 billion U.S. dollars), while Chinese-Australian trade helped create some 640,000 jobs in Australia. About 37 percent of Australian exports went to China over the past 12 months.
"We have many shared interests," he said. "We are in the same region; our economies are highly complementary; we both support multilateralism and free trade ... Potentials for continued cooperation are huge."
"It is a fact that we have differences," he said. "That's normal. But the important thing is we handle them in a constructive way, in a way that will not make obstacles for the further development of the relations."
As the year 2019 is drawing to an end, in retrospect, he called it a "mixed year" in bilateral relations.
There had been some high-level exchanges between the two countries.
"As an ambassador, I always believe high-level exchanges important in bilateral relations," he said.
In 2019 there had been meetings between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as well as Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan. There were also exchanges between foreign ministers from both countries.
"It could have been better," said Cheng while answering questions from a local reporter who mentioned some China-bashing Members of Parliament.
"In year 2020 we expect relationships will be back to normal," Cheng said. "It is important we look at each other's development in an objective way. That is to say, we look at each other's development as an opportunity, rather than a threat."
"It is important for both sides to respect each other's development path and social model," he said. "I hope people in this country, including media, will have a better understanding of China's history, difficulties we have had and achievements that we have made so far."
The ambassador hoped some of the media could at least make accurate reports about China, China's system, China's situation, and China's policy.
