Australian PM Denies Toeing Trump's Line On China As Beijing Conducts 'Academic Roadshow'           

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is denying that his country is being subservient to the U.S. and President Donald Trump on the issue of China and its continued self-identification as a “developing country."

Morrison made his comments Thursday in New York just days after he backed Trump’s opinion that China is now a developed nation not eligible for certain subsidies and other benefits.

Coincidentally, Morrison spoke while three Chinese academics wrapped up a three-day tour of Australia organized by the Chinese embassy in Canberra in what is being called an “academic roadshow.” The trio gave interviews with local media and visited think tanks in Sydney and Canberra including the Lowy Institute, the Australian Institute of International Affairs and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Morrison also told reporters that “Australia’s view is based on our national interest on all of these things and that’s what guides our own comments, our own discussions.” He also warned against countries taking a fatalistic view of a “polarized world where countries feel pushed to make binary choices."

He went on, “Australia will continue to resist this path. Australia will continue to seek to honestly maintain our great alliances and comprehensive partnerships in good repair, from our great and powerful friends to our smallest Pacific Island family neighbors.”

One member of the “academic roadshow” was Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing. He warned that Australia could not rely on the U.S. to defend it if tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated to the point of war. “We want a good relationship with everyone. Australia should be the bridge, to bridge the gap between China and the United States,” Wang commented to the local media.

Wang was critical of Australia’s ban on Huawei Technologies, a Chinese multinational technology company, involvement in its 5G network and the introduction of anti-foreign interference laws last year. He also accused Canberra of trying to “embarrass” China by leading the UN’s recent criticism of the treatment of the Uygur minority in Xinjiang, one of several persecuted Muslim minorities in northwest China.

The issue of China’s status as a developing nation is a sore point with China. The pro-Chinese government newspaper, the Global Times, said in an editorial that when Western countries try to define development in China it is out of “selfish considerations." President Trump has lambasted the idea of China as a developing country as “unfair” because of the country’s advanced development in certain areas and its size.

Australia is allied with the U.S. for defense and security while China is its biggest trading partner. This has put the Australian prime minister in an awkward position as the trade war goes on between the two superpowers.