- by Long Dingbin – Chinese General Consul in Perth
- The Guardian
- Issue #2140
Celebrations to welcome in the Chinese Lunar New Year, 25 January Boorloo/Perth. Consul General Long Dingbin with Vinnie Molina.
In March 2025, significant events unfolded in both China and WA.
In the Northern Hemisphere spring, China’s Two Sessions concluded successfully, sounding a clarion call to advance Chinese modernisation and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
In Australia’s summer, the four-yearly state election was held as scheduled. The WA Labor Party secured a third consecutive term, with Premier Roger Cook steering the state toward new horizons.
At this new starting point, as Chinese Consul General in Perth, I would like to describe the future China-WA practical cooperation through four keywords.
First Keyword: Economic Development.
In 2024, China’s GDP surpassed 130 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 134.9 trillion yuan (approximately AUD $30 trillion) with a year-on-year increase of 5 per cent. China ranks among the world’s fastest-growing major economies, continuing to contribute about 30 per cent to global economic growth.
For 2025, China has set a GDP growth target of around 5 per cent, injecting momentum into a sluggish world economy.
WA leads the nation in economic and population growth, with the lowest unemployment rate, solidifying its role as Australia’s economic powerhouse.
China, as WA’s longstanding largest trading partner, enjoys an enormous market, a complete industrial system, a wealth of manpower and talent, and vast space for future growth through demand upgrades, structural improvements, and a shift to new growth drivers. It remains a vital opportunity for global development, including Australia.
China and WA have every reason to continue joining hands, driving mutual economic growth and shaping a future of shared prosperity.
Second Keyword: Advanced Manufacturing.
China is vigorously developing new quality productive forces, fostering industries of the future such as embodied AI and 6G, and emphasising high-quality growth through technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and green transformation. This aligns closely with the WA Labor Party’s ‘Made in WA’ initiative.
China and WA share immense potential in emerging fields such as green development and the digital economy.
Both can strengthen cooperation in traditional sectors like mining and agriculture, unlock new opportunities in trade, investment, innovation, and energy transition, and cultivate growth areas in AI, quantum technology, and life sciences – advancing manufacturing toward greater technological sophistication, intelligence, and sustainability.
Third Keyword: Improving People’s Livelihoods.
The Chinese people’s aspiration for a better life is our nation’s unwavering goal. This year’s Two Sessions outlined plans for aged care, youth employment, education, healthcare, and housing quality, addressing public expectations.
Meanwhile, the WA government is prioritising solutions to housing shortages, healthcare access, and cost-of-living pressures, striving to ensure affordable housing and equitable medical services.
With shared missions and goals, China and WA can learn from each other, exchange best practices, and enhance cooperation in prefabricated construction, healthcare, and aged care to better enhance the well-being of both peoples.
Fourth Keyword: Mutual Benefit and Win-Win Cooperation.
Amid a world undergoing profound changes, some countries prioritise self-interest, escalating trade and tariff wars, and fuelling unilateralism and protectionism, undermining the international order rooted in the UN Charter and international law.
China remains firm in pursuing a strategy of opening up for mutual benefit, opposes hegemony and power politics, rejects unilateralism and protectionism, injecting stability into an uncertain world through its own development.
China believes that friends should be permanent and we should pursue common interests. At this new juncture, China stands ready to collaborate with WA’s new government to elevate practical cooperation to higher quality and vitality, enhance the welfare of both peoples, and advance a more mature, stable, and productive China-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
