STORY: Australian expert upbeat about China's high-quality development
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: Feb. 21, 2025
LENGTH: 0:01:54
LOCATION: SYDNEY, Australia
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of China
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): JAMES LAURENCESON, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney
3. various of China
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): JAMES LAURENCESON, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney

STORYLINE:

An Australian expert has expressed his confidence in China's economic growth.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): JAMES LAURENCESON, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney
"China is a major supplier of manufactured goods and increasingly more high-tech manufactured goods. When I walk on Sydney streets now, it's very obvious there are Chinese electric vehicles everywhere. It's a big impact, but it's also quite a broad one as well. So I'm very confident about China in the long term. I think the composition is just going to get more and more diverse. In other words, there will be more and more sectors of the Australian economy that will benefit from trade with China. So I don't think the best days of the Australia-China trade relationship are behind us. I think I'm quite confident actually the best days remain in the future."

China continued to ease its visa policies in 2024 to boost openness and people-to-people exchanges, allowing more foreign travelers and businesspeople to visit the country visa-free.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): JAMES LAURENCESON, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney
"Look, every time I think foreigners go to China, they're impressed because there are always big changes compared with when they were last there. I mean overall, it's hard not to be impressed by the world-class infrastructure and so on. You would be aware that Australians are now able to go to China visa-free, right? Fantastic. The more trade barriers that we can eliminate, the better. That's going to help. There was a very interesting poll of Australian public opinion done not so long ago. They asked Australians, 'What causes you to have a more positive impression of China or what causes you to have a more negative impression of China?' And the number one positive factor was that Australians said, 'Well, the more Chinese people I meet, the more positive I'm about China.' No surprise, right? So I think the more we can encourage those people-to-people flows, that's certainly an advantage."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Sydney, Australia.
(XHTV)