Let’s not reject forty years of cooperation and exchange with China. Australia has greatly benefitted from trade, investment, cultural exchange and collaboration over these decades. Now, as the United States and Europe threaten to raise tariffs, erect barriers to exchanges and prioritise security concerns, it is time to remember when we espoused multilateralism and openness.

The decade of the 1980s is known in China as the Reform and Opening Up Period. It marked a massive shift from Maoist policies of self-sufficiency. Communist Party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping saw that neighbouring economies such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea had been able to lift living standards through integration into the global trading system, and he began to dismantle the central planning system that had governed domestic production and trade. As Senior Trade Commissioner in Beijing at the time, I saw new opportunities for Australia to engage with China almost every day and worked to maximise benefits for Australia through a coordinated “China Action Plan.” Working with then Ambassador Ross Garnaut, we began negotiations that led up to China’s first major overseas investment, the Channar Iron Ore Mine. This was evidence of the mutual trust that had been built up between the governments and commercial enterprises. The Hawke government strongly backed the development of APEC and encouraged China to become a member.

The momentum of this period continued through the 1990s, although there was a setback with the Tiananmen massacre of........

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