CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia had fired the “first shot” in its deteriorating relations with China four years ago when the then-government banned Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from rolling out the country’s 5G network due to security concerns, a Chinese ambassador said on Friday.
Xiao Qian, China’s ambassador to Australia since January, gave a rare public address at University Technology Sydney that was repeatedly interrupted by human rights protesters holding signs that read “Free Tibet” and “Hong Kong independence.”
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was not aware of the human rights protesters at Xiao’s speech, but “we hope the relevant people will observe basic diplomatic protocol.”
The address comes as China shows signs of thawing a diplomatic deepfreeze of Australian ministers following the election of a new government last month.
Bilateral relations plummeted in early 2020 after the previous Australian government called for an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Xiao highlighted the government’s 2018 decision to block Huawei from Australia’s 5G rollout as a turning point in the relationship.
