Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Li Jian unleashes war of words on Australia, citing ‘systematic racism’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he won’t be deterred from raising human rights issues after China unleashed a fiery verbal barrage, accusing Australia of “hate crimes” and “systemic racism”.

The attack comes after an Australian diplomat flagged with the United Nations concerns by 15 countries over human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Li Jian accused Australia of joining with the US and “a handful of other Western countries” with “ideological bias” to stoke confrontations at multilateral forums “for their selfish political interest”.

“Australia, long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes, has severely violated the rights of refugees and immigrants and left Indigenous people with vulnerable living conditions,” he said in a press conference, responding to a question from the Communist Party-run state broadcaster CCTV.

“Australian soldiers have committed abhorrent crimes in Afghanistan and other countries during their military operations overseas.

“These Western countries turn a blind eye to their severe human rights issues at home but in the meantime point their fingers at other countries. This says a lot about their hypocrisy on human rights.”

But Mr Albanese said Australia wouldn’t be deterred from continuing to raise human rights issues and China watchers say the broadside shouldn’t have implications for the bilateral relationship.

Asked whether the foreign ministry official had gone too far, Australia’s PM reiterated his approach to China: “We’ll cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must and we’ll engage in our national interest.

“We, of course, will always stand up for Australia’s interests,” he told media in Samoa, where he is attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

“We have raised issues of human rights with China, we have done that in a consistent and clear way.”

The pointed remarks from China — reminiscent of the regular verbal lashings during the Turnbull and Morrison governments — came a day after Australia’s ambassador to the UN James Larsen used a statement to its human rights committee to call for independent observers in Tibet and Xinjiang.

“No country has a perfect human rights record, but no country is above fair scrutiny of its human rights obligations,” Mr Larsen said.

“It is incumbent on all of us not to undermine international human rights commitments that benefit us all, and for which all states are accountable.”

The same group of countries has made similar remarks to the forum for years.

Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor said China had always been exceptionally sensitive to any criticism of its human rights record and the response, while overblown, shouldn’t be seen as indicative of a reversal in the relationship.

“Whoever made the presentation on behalf of like-minded nations last year would have been similarly attacked. It’s our turn to speak this year, so it’s our turn to feel China’s wrath,” he said.

The content of the backlash was nothing new either, Mr McGregor said, having been used by China for decades.

ANU’s Benjamin Herscovitch said both governments will still be committed to continuing the process of stabilisation.

But he believed the “wolf warrior” approach from China had never gone away, despite its “incrementally softer” treatment of Australia in recent years, pointing to its hard-edged rhetoric towards the US.

“I guess the question then becomes, are we going to see a return to a really pugnacious, aggressive approach from Beijing towards Canberra, and will this have an impact on the Australia-China relationship specifically? And I don’t think that it will,” he said.

“It wants to keep Australia on side, and so Beijing will express what it considers to be the obligatory outrage at Australia’s statement but I don’t think it’s going to bleed into the broader bilateral relationship.”

Shadow foreign affairs minister Simon Birmingham said Mr Larsen’s statement was factual, balanced and considered, in contrast to China’s response.

“Australia has acknowledged that none of us is perfect on human rights, yet that is what China pretends,” he said.

The relationship between Australia and China has stabilised over the past couple of years but tensions still run below the surface.

The final trade barriers imposed by the Asian giant ended this month with the announcement that Australian lobsters would once again be permitted on Chinese tables.

Senate President Sue Lines led a parliamentary delegation to China last week, the first such travelling party in five years.

She said the Chinese political leaders the group met, including the chair of the National People’s Congress and Liu Jianchao, the minister of the Communist Party’s international department, expressed a desire for the relationship to stay on a stable footing.

“Of course, we raised our trade concerns and we raised our human rights concerns,” Senator Lines told The West Australian.