Word: australian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Nevertheless, the specter of a communist country of 1.3 billion people can spook even close economic partners. In the eyes of some Australians, it is one thing to sell what lies underground to China, but rather another to let Chinese companies own Australian resources themselves. Twice this year, Chinese state-owned enterprises have snapped up major Australian mining stakes. But the biggest deal didn't go through. The state-owned Aluminum Corp. of China, better known as Chinalco, was supposed to take a $19.5 billion stake in Australian-British Rio Tinto, which controls, among other mines, vast iron-ore deposits...
...Tensions have also been exacerbated by the economy's increasing dependence on Asian markets. The long economic boom came courtesy of Asian - read Chinese - demand for Australian commodities such as iron ore, coal and bauxite. In large measure, Australians understand the benefit of this regional trade. "The Australian people are enormously practical about the reality of China," says Rudd. "That hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs, directly or indirectly, depend on Chinese trade is something Australians...
...makes you wonder: can a nation really welcome being economically yoked to China if it also sees Beijing's ambitions as a threat? In a recent speech on Australian foreign policy, Turnbull questioned whether it was possible to satisfy both of the Pacific's superpowers. "The risk of representing oneself as some kind of trans-Pacific interlocutor," he said, "is that one will be perceived by the Americans as overly sympathetic to China and by the Chinese as a bearer of other people's missions, rather than an advocate...
...because America is an overwhelming force of good for the world." In an early sign of goodwill, in April Rudd announced that Australia would send an extra 450 soldiers to Afghanistan - where it already had 1,100 troops serving - even as he began fulfilling an election pledge to pull Australian troops from Iraq...
...special report: Australian Journey...