Q: The Australian leader said yesterday at the Federal Parliament that Australia takes seriously the media reports about China's interference in Australian affairs, and the relationship with China is far too important to be put at risk by failing to clearly set the terms of healthy and sustainable engagement. He also believes Australia will assert its sovereignty with parliament and with laws What is your comment?

A: We are shocked by the Australian leader's remarks which are lack of principle and simply pander to those irresponsible reports by some Australian media. Imbued with bias towards China, these groundless and unfounded remarks can sabotage China-Australia relations and are detrimental to the foundation of mutual trust and cooperation. We are strongly dissatisfied with those remarks and has lodged stern representations with the Australian side.

China consistently develops its relations with other countries on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in domestic affairs. That is also how we pursues our relationship with Australia. We strongly urge the relevant people in Australia to shake off their Cold War mentality and bias against China, immediately stop uttering false remarks that undermine political mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation, and take effective measures to offset negative effects so as to avoid disrupting and impacting the development of China-Australia relations.