Spy reports won't harm ties with China: Australia
Spy reports won't harm ties with China: Australia
SYDNEY (Reuter): Australia yesterday said its relations with
China, one of its major trading partners, would not be harmed by
media reports Australian spies had bugged the Chinese embassy in
Canberra for the United States.
Australian Trade Minister Bob McMullan refused to give
credibility to the spy reports, but said Australia's relationship
with China was mature and would withstand such reports.
"I can't see on the face of it why this would affect one cent
of our trade relationship," McMullan said in an interview from
Manila with Australia's Channel Nine television network.
"When I come home I will have a look at those issues and see
whether any trade implications flow from the allegations,"
McMullan said.
On Friday, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
television reported that Australian spies had laid a network of
fiber optic listening devices throughout the Chinese embassy
during its construction in the late 1980s.
Citing unnamed Australian intelligence sources, the
government-funded ABC said the bugging operation was controlled
by the United States National Security Agency.
The ABC report said the bugs relayed information from the
embassy to a receiver at the rear of the neighboring British High
Commission before being beamed direct to Washington.
The A$19 million (US$14 million) embassy, with its traditional
Chinese sloping tiled roof, was opened in 1988.
On Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper also reported
the spying operation, but in more detail.
The Herald said intelligence sources told it that A$5 million
($3.6 million) was spent installing the bugs, in one of
Australia's biggest intelligence gathering operations.
Both media organizations said the United States filtered the
intelligence before relaying it back to Australia, sparking fears
in the Australian intelligence community that the United States
would have an unfair advantage over Australia in trade
negotiations with China.
But McMullan dismissed such concerns, saying Australia and the
United States were not major competitors for China trade and that
only minor trade discussions would have occurred in the Chinese
embassy.
McMullan said Australia and the United States only competed in
some hi-tech, manufactured areas and not in Australia's major
area of commodities, such as wool and coal.
"I can't see that there's anything but the most marginal
opportunity to get a trade benefit, if such an event were to
occur," McMullan said.
"I wouldn't have thought you'd invest much money to get that
sort of benefit."
Australia's prime minister and foreign minister have both
refused to comment on the spy reports, while officials from the
Chinese, United States and British embassies in Australia have
been unavailable for comment since the ABC defied government
attempts to muzzle it and broadcast its report.