Chinese International Relations Professor Zhang Weiwei: Australia Is A Small, Boring Country Whose Economy Is In Decline; It Is Inconsequential When They Talk About China, Ban 5G

Chinese international relations professor Zhang Weiwei said in a November 22, 2020 interview that was uploaded to YouTube by Guan Video that since Australia is a "boring" and small country whose economy is in decline, when China becomes a topic in the Australian discourse it is in order to garner attention and votes. He also expressed agreement with senior Huawei official Yu Chengdong that because the Australian and New Zealand markets are so small, their ban on Huawei's 5G technology is inconsequential. Professor Weiwei teaches at Fudan University.

Zhang Weiwei: "Australia is a country whose economy is in decline. It is a very boring country. Very boring. It looks like a big country, but its actually very small. Its population is small, not much more than 20 million. And there's not much to hype about in its domestic politics. So hyping about China has become a topic because this hype will attract attention. Someone will either support it or oppose it, causing controversy. [Australian PM Scott Morrison] can then get votes. That's basically it, very politician-like. Just wait and see when this Prime Minister steps down and the next one enters...The next PM will become friendly with China again. So, it cycles around, no need to pay much attention to Australia.

"There is not much you can do, because Australia is a member of the Five Eyes Alliance. The Five Eyes Alliance is basically an Anglo-Saxon [alliance], one ethnic group. So I quite agree with what Yu Chengdong from Huawei said about Australia's ban on Huawei's 5G technology. He said that [Australia's] market is smaller than that of our Guangzhou. New Zealand also banned Huawei's 5G. He said that New Zealand was smaller than my hometown of Yiyang of Hunan province. So we really don't care. I think it is better to treat countries like Australia with an attitude like this. Telling them by using language they understand."

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Interviewer: "I think it is simply a suicide attack [on Australia's part]."

Zhang Weiwei: "It's very stupid. 30% of their exports go to China. So you cannot play this kind of politics with your largest trading partner. Playing this kind of game... This is very stupid. Very stupid."