Since resuscitating relations with China from a low point a few years ago, the Australian government has relied on an oft-repeated mantra to “cooperate where we can, disagree where we must.”

自从几年前中澳双边关系从低谷中改善以来，澳大利亚政府一直奉行着一个被反复提及的准则，即“在能够合作的地方进行合作，在必须反对的地方表达反对”。

Some of those disagreements came into view this week as Chinese diplomats pushed back against an Australian intelligence assessment and Canberra’s security-deal making in the Pacific, accusing the country of stoking paranoia and unfairly targeting China.

本周，随着中国外交官对澳大利亚的一份情报评估以及堪培拉在太平洋地区签署的安全协议进行回击，部分上述分歧显现了出来。中方指责澳方煽动偏执情绪并极不公正地针对中国。

In one of the public skirmishes, China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, responded to an annual threat assessment speech given by Australia’s top intelligence official, Mike Burgess, by writing an opinion piece published this week in the Sydney Morning Herald.

在其中一场公开交锋中，中国驻澳大利亚大使肖千针对澳大利亚最高情报官员迈克·伯吉斯(Mike Burgess)发表的年度威胁评估演讲做出了回应，其撰写的评论文章于本周发表在《悉尼先驱晨报》上。

Mr. Burgess warned about foreign interference in Australian society as well as “coercive repatriations” and attempts to gain access to critical infrastructure. He did not mention China by name, but a video at the event reportedly showed footage of Chinese nationals who were arrested in Canberra for allegedly covertly collecting information on a Buddhist group in Australia on behalf of Chinese security officials.

伯吉斯在演讲中对外国干涉澳大利亚社会、“强迫遣返”和试图渗透关键基础设施的行为发出了警告。他并未直接提及中国的名字，但据报道，活动现场的一段视频播放了多名中国公民在堪培拉被捕的画面，他们被指控涉嫌代表中国安全官员秘密收集澳大利亚一个佛教团体的情报。

Mr. Xiao took issue with the clip, calling it “one-sided.” Saying Australian organizations and media outlets had “repeatedly fabricated and hyped falsehoods and fallacies regarding the security threat posed by China,” Mr. Xiao wrote that the allegations had “deeply wounded the feelings of the people of both China and Australia, and undermined the atmosphere of friendly cooperation between the two sides.”

肖千对这段视频提出了异议，称其“片面”。他表示，澳大利亚的某些机构和媒体“频繁制造、煽炒‘中国安全威胁’谎言谬论”，他写道，这些指控“深深伤害了中澳两国人民的感情，破坏了双方友好合作的氛围”。

In a twist on the Australian government’s China policy, Mr. Xiao said the two countries should be “seeking common ground while shelving differences.”

针对澳大利亚政府的对华政策，肖千换了一种说法，表示两国应当“求同存异”。

The comments come amid China’s efforts to burnish its image in the region as a responsible partner and global power, while reminding Canberra that relations could spiral again. (Punishing economic sanctions blocked Australian imports into China for several years, until 2024.)

这些言论发表之际，中国正努力在地区内树立其作为负责任合作伙伴和全球大国的形象，同时也在提醒堪培拉，双边关系随时可能再次陷入恶性循环。（惩罚性的经济制裁曾连续几年阻止澳大利亚商品进口到中国，直到2024年才宣告结束。）

At the same time, Australian public perception of China has reached a high point not seen in years, with more than 60 percent of Australians saying they viewed the country more as an economic partner than as a security threat — a drastic flip from about four years ago when those proportions were reversed. With the simultaneous erosion of Australians’ view of the U.S. administration, the levels of trust in either the United States or China to “act responsibly” in the world are now almost evenly matched.

与此同时，澳大利亚公众对中国的正面认知达到了多年未见的高点，超过60%的澳大利亚人表示，他们更多地将中国视为经济合作伙伴而非安全威胁——这与大约四年前的情况截然相反。由于澳大利亚人对美国政府的看法同时在恶化，目前公众对美国和中国在国际事务中“负责任行事“的信任度几乎不相上下。

中国驻澳大利亚大使肖千于1月在堪培拉举行的一场新闻发布会上。他曾表示，两国应当“求同存异”。

Jingdong Yuan, associate senior fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the pushback from the Chinese ambassador to Australia was a sign of the fragility of the relationship between the countries, which is “stable only to the extent that they both have enormous economic stakes.”

斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所高级副研究员袁劲东表示，中国驻澳大使的回击显现出两国关系的脆弱性，这种关系“仅仅稳定在双方都拥有巨大经济利益的层面上”。

“It is neither party’s interest to deliberately destabilize or cause some problems. But it doesn’t mean they see things eye to eye, so there’s still a huge gap there,” he said.

他说：“故意破坏稳定或制造麻烦并不符合任何一方的利益。但这并不意味着他们看待问题能完全一致，因此彼此之间仍存在巨大的鸿沟。”

Mr. Xiao, in his piece, accused Australian officials of viewing the relationship “through the lens of a Cold War mentality and using national security as a pretext to portray China as a hypothetical enemy,” warning that such an approach would run counter to Australia’s national interest.

肖千在其文章中指责澳大利亚官员“用冷战思维”来看待两国关系，“用‘国家安全’把中国描述成“假想敌””，他警告称，这种做法将背离澳大利亚的国家利益。

An editorial in the state-run Global Times this week was blunt: “These recent petty moves by relevant Australian authorities inevitably recall the unpleasant period in China-Australia relations a few years ago.”

官方媒体《环球时报》本周发表的社论则非常直白：“澳大利亚有关部门搞的这些小动作，令人联想起前几年中澳关系那段不愉快的历史。”

‘An excuse for geopolitical contest’

“地缘政治博弈的借口”

China is Australia’s most important trading partner, accounting for almost a third of its exports. At the same time, Beijing’s increasing military ambitions in the region have been felt closer and closer to Australian shores, as it pursued security agreements with Pacific island nations and sent warships to traverse nearby waters.

中国是澳大利亚最重要的贸易伙伴，占其出口总额的近三分之一。与此同时，随着北京在太平洋岛国寻求安全协议并派遣军舰穿越附近海域，其在该地区日益增长的军事意图正越来越清晰地在澳大利亚海岸线附近被感知到。

Since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia took office in 2022, he has performed a balancing act of trying to improve the economic relationship and back away from the previous government’s more confrontational stance toward Beijing, while aggressively tending to its partnerships in the Pacific to ward off China’s encroachment.

自2022年上台以来，澳大利亚总理安东尼·阿尔巴尼斯一直在实行一种平衡战术：一方面试图改善经济关系，告别前任政府对北京更具对抗性的姿态；另一方面又竭力维系其在太平洋地区的伙伴关系，以抵御中国的渗透。

“The Albanese government has gradually recognized that China is not a neighboring power that can be marginalized, bypassed, or ‘controlled’ through security policies, but rather an important partner with whom Australia must coexist pragmatically over the long term,” said Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai.

上海华东师范大学澳大利亚研究中心主任陈弘表示：“阿尔巴尼斯政府已经逐渐认识到，中国并不是一个可以通过安全政策被边缘化、绕开或‘控制’的邻国，而是一个澳大利亚必须与其长期务实共存的重要伙伴。”

This week, Australia finalized a long-sought security pact with Vanuatu, in which the small nation of about 330,000 about three hours by plane from Australia agreed that it will “not permit its territory to be used for any foreign military base or infrastructure” and confirmed that Australia is its “primary policing partner.” This comes after China has sought policing deals with several Pacific countries.

本周，澳大利亚与瓦努阿图正式敲定了一项谋求已久的安全协定。根据协议，这个距离澳大利亚约三小时航程、人口约33万的小国同意，“不准许其领土被用于任何外国军事基地或基础设施”，并确认澳大利亚是其“主要警务合作伙伴”。此前，中国一直在与数个太平洋国家寻求警务合作协议。

Asked about the agreement, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said cooperation with Pacific island nations “should not target any third party, still less be used as an excuse for geopolitical contest.” China, which is also pursuing its own agreement with Vanuatu, is approaching nations in the region “fair and square,” said Guo Jiakun, the spokesman.

在被问及该协议时，中国外交部发言人郭嘉昆表示，同太平洋岛国的合作“不应针对第三方，更不应借此搞地缘博弈”。他还表示，中国与该地区国家的接触是“光明磊落”的。北京同样在寻求与瓦努阿图达成自身协议。

澳大利亚与瓦努阿图领导人于6月在堪培拉出席一场签字仪式。在这项协定中，瓦努阿图同意“不准许其领土被用于任何外国军事基地”。

“Our cooperation is not imposed on anyone, nor does it target any third party,” he said.

双方的合作“既不强加于人，也不针对第三方”，他说。

When it comes to the Pacific islands, “That’s an area where the Albanese government isn’t hedging at all, it’s out-and-out to block incursions into the Pacific, making no apologies for that,” said James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

悉尼科技大学澳中关系研究院院长詹姆斯·劳伦斯森表示，在涉及太平洋岛国的问题上，“那是阿尔巴尼斯政府完全不含糊的领域，完全是为了阻止外部势力涉足太平洋，且对此毫不遮掩。”

China and Australia will continue to disagree on spheres of influence in the region and over U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific, but have been able to register their differences without the relationship deteriorating as it did around 2020, Mr. Laurenceson said.

劳伦斯森表示，中国和澳大利亚将继续在该地区的势力范围以及美国在亚太地区的军事存在等问题上各执己见，但双方已经能够做到陈述各自的分歧而不至于让关系恶化到2020年左右的境地。

“You’ve got Canberra and Beijing agreeing to disagree, neither side overreacts, and the relationship kind of moves on,” he said.

“现实是堪培拉和北京同意保留分歧，任何一方都不会做出过激反应，双边关系得以继续向前推进，”他说。

The stabilization has been a hallmark of Mr. Albanese’s foreign policy, who has taken a vastly different tack than his predecessors, who made a point of pledging to “stand up” to China, publicly airing accusations of foreign interference and raising questions about the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

这种稳定化已经成为了阿尔巴尼斯外交政策的核心标志。他采取了与前任截然不同的策略，其前任曾高调承诺对中国要“站起来”，公开宣扬外国干涉指控，并对新冠病毒的起源提出质疑。

Mr. Albanese has met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, four times, trying to keep the focus on trade and tourism, and exercising restraint in remarks about Chinese military presence in a way the conservative opposition at home has attacked as “weak.”

阿尔巴尼斯已经与中国最高领导人习近平举行了四次会晤，努力将焦点锁定在贸易和旅游上，并在评论中国军事存在时保持克制，这种做法被国内的保守派反对党抨击为“软弱”。

Still, he has been forthright in speaking about Beijing’s ambitions in the region, saying in a recent interview with The New York Times that the Chinese are “interested in increasing their influence at a minimum, and hegemony in the longer term.”

尽管如此，他在谈及北京在各地区的意图时依然非常直率，在最近接受《纽约时报》采访时他表示，中国“至少对扩大其影响力感兴趣，从长远来看则是谋求霸权”。

The Australian public is similarly nuanced in its views of China, said Charles Lyons-Jones, a research fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, who carried out the recent opinion polls on Australian public perceptions of China and the United States.

总部位于悉尼的布鲁金斯学会悉尼罗伊研究所研究员查尔斯·里昂斯-琼斯表示，澳大利亚公众对中国的看法同样不是非黑即白的。他近期就澳大利亚公众对中美的看法进行了民意调查。

“Australians support the trading relationship with China but remain cleareyed about the security threat,” he said. “They are highly capable of holding contradictory ideas at the same time.”

“澳大利亚人支持与中国的贸易关系，但对安全威胁保持着清醒的认识，”他说。“他们完全有能力包容相互矛盾的想法。”