Australian rare earth miners push development deals to counter China grip - Reuters

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Rare earth developers in Australia say they are edging closer to signing deals with new customers that would drive forward their projects amid mounting global supply concerns over the minerals that are crucial to high-tech industries.

FILE PHOTO: Rare earths dug up and processed into concentrate at Mount Weld in Western Australia, are pictured after being shipped to the Lynas plant in Gebeng, Malaysia, July 3, 2014. REUTERS/Sonali Paul

Australia contains only 2.8% of the world’s rare earth reserves, according to the United States Geological Survey. However, the country accounts for more than half of the new projects in the global pipeline, according to data compiled by the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) at Curtin University.

Rare earths are a group of 17 minerals critical to a wide array of industries from high-tech consumer electronics to electric vehicles and sophisticated military equipment.

Most of Australia’s projects, however, have been stuck as developers struggle to secure financing because of the domination of China, which accounts for about 90% of global rare earths processing capacity and one-quarter of the world’s reserves.

Even the projects closest to start-up are unlikely to begin operations until 2023 at the earliest, the WASM data shows.

Still, those projects may speed up amid the escalating trade war between the United States and China. The United States imports 80% of its rare earths from China, where state-owned news outlets have reported it could cut its shipments to the U.S. as part of the dispute.

Northern Minerals, which is developing the Browns Range project in Australia’s northwest, said last week that it was in “discussions with an internationally recognized industrial group” for supply.

“The level of interest has increased since the increased news focus on the issue,” a company spokesman said this week.

Hastings Technology, which is readying its Yangibana rare earths project in Western Australia for late 2021 production already has one preliminary supply agreement with Germany’s Thyssenkrupp and signed another with automotive supplier Schaeffler AG last week.

“We are working on another German supply agreement which we expect to tie up this year,” said Charles Lew, Hastings’ executive chairman.

Additionally, Hastings is receiving financing from Germany’s strategic minerals procurement body, he said.

(For a graphic on 'Rare earth production' click tmsnrt.rs/2I4ixHG)

The prospects for Australia’s rare earths industry are picking up based on growing demand expectations.

The U.S. said this week it would look to Australia and Canada to develop rare earths reserves around the world to reduce the global reliance on China.

A Thyssenkrupp spokesman said last week that “in the area of rare earths we are regularly on the lookout for new partners to serve the growing global demand.”

The reason rare earths projects outside of China have not advanced is because China’s vast production, underpinned by cheaper labor and less stringent environmental regulations, means no one else can compete on cost, said WASM Professor Dudley Kingsnorth.

Australia’s Lynas Corp, the world’s only rare earths producer outside of China, has been supported by low interest loans from Japan’s government. Last month Lynas outlined expansion plans including building a U.S. processing plant.

Kingsnorth estimates the world will need 75,000 tonnes of rare earths per year to be independent of China by 2025. However, his projections are that the rest of the world will only be producing 50,000 tonnes independent of China by that time.

End-users are not willing to invest in mines that are years away from production and more costly than in China, he said.

However, companies are not pricing in the risk of a politically driven supply disruption, he said.

“It’s not about being competitive with China, it’s do you get your metals or not?” said Kingsnorth.

(For a graphic on 'Rare earth export markets perk up after China rattles trade warsaber' click tmsnrt.rs/2XdxeS8)

Without government support, most new projects will struggle to see the light of day, said a resource companies analyst who declined to be named because of company policy.

Especially if companies are planning to build processing plants, the cost of which can be an order of magnitude more than the value of the companies building them, he said.

For example, Australian rare earths miner Arafura Resources, a company with a market capitalization of A$77 million ($53.24 million), is seeking to secure $1 billion in funding for its project that includes a processing plant.

Arafura and fellow miner Alkane Resources met with U.S. defense officials as part of an Australian trade delegation in February but returned empty handed, executives from both companies said.

“The conundrum that’s occurring is do or don’t people wish to put money on the ground to pay higher costs to mitigate risk?” said Alkane’s Managing Director Nick Earner.

Reporting by Melanie Burton in MELBOURNE. Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in TOKYO and Christoph Steitz in FRANKFURT; editing by Christian Schmollinger

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-06-14 06:51:00Z
CAIiEDsQwwfCS5l9K4Qi5SCLQdMqFQgEKg0IACoGCAowt6AMMLAmMJSCDg

Bob Hawke: Thousands honour 'deeply loved' Australian ex-PM - BBC News

Thousands of Australians have honoured the nation's third-longest serving leader, Bob Hawke, in a state memorial service at the Sydney Opera House.

Mr Hawke was prime minister from 1983 to 1991 - a period of immense national reforms. He died last month aged 89.

He was honoured as an "inspirational" figure in a service attended by his family and many prominent Australians, including five former prime ministers.

Mr Hawke launched his successful bid for PM at the opera house in 1983.

He went on to win four elections - still a record for a Labor Party leader - and achieve record approval ratings. Together with successor Paul Keating, Mr Hawke is credited with modernising Australia's economy.

Among other legacies, he created Australia's universal Medicare healthcare system, promoted large-scale conservation efforts, and outlawed workplace gender discrimination.

His wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, said that his death had prompted "a national outpouring of grief".

"Today, this memorial service marks the transition from the grief of loss to the celebration of a life triumphantly well lived," she told the service.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

In his tribute, Prime Minister Scott Morrison described Australia as "a nation Bob Hawke loved and that deeply loved him in return".

Among hundreds of people in the sold-out hall were former prime ministers Mr Keating, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, as well as current Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

Thousands more watched the service on a screen outside, with some carrying tributes on placards.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard, who is chairing a summit overseas, said in a video message: "A million words could be written and a million more spoken about Bob Hawke, such is the breadth of his achievement.

"But for me, the essence of the Bob I knew is caught by one word - inspiration... He inspired the nation to embrace a new and better future."

Others celebrated Mr Hawke for his "larrikin" humour, resolve, and preparedness to show emotion.

Mr Hawke cried publicly a number of times in office - most famously in 1989 at a memorial service at Parliament House following the crackdown on Chinese students at Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

It prompted him to offer asylum to Chinese students who were in Australia - a decision which ultimately granted permanent visas to 42,000 people.

Ms d'Alpuget used her speech to thank Chinese Australians for their condolences, saying "in no country besides Australia did he have more friends... than in China".

Mr Keating drew laughs when he told the service that he and Mr Hawke would sometimes "criticise one another to immediate staff... often heavy criticisms", but said the pair were united in delivering significant reforms.

"What matters is the value of the legacy, its quality and its endurance," he said, adding that Mr Hawke's was "five-star and 24 carat".

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2019-06-14 06:33:39Z
CBMiLGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy93b3JsZC1hc2lhLTQ4NjMyNzk20gEwaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvbS9uZXdzL2FtcC93b3JsZC1hc2lhLTQ4NjMyNzk2

Bob Hawke: Why Chinese Australians are mourning a 'tender-hearted' PM - BBC News

On Friday, Australians will honour beloved former leader Bob Hawke in a memorial service at the Sydney Opera House. Among them will be many Chinese Australians - including my parents - whose lives changed forever when Mr Hawke offered them asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In June 1989, Chinese troops used guns and tanks to suppress protesters calling for democracy in Beijing, killing an unknown number of people.

Half a world away in Australia, my father Cong Hui Mao watched in horror as the crackdown unfolded on his television set.

He had recently moved from China to Sydney, aged 30, on a one-year student visa. In Australia he found a vast nation with the kind of political freedoms that protesters in China had been calling for. The Tiananmen demonstrations had given him hope, and for weeks he closely followed the "promising flickers" of a new China.

"It was an exciting time - we felt that we were at a crossroads where we could bring up new ideas," he says.

"So when Tiananmen happened, it was like a great fire had been quashed."

In the days following, he joined crowds of Chinese students in Sydney who poured on to the streets to march for their peers at home. "We were grieving but also angry," he says. "So angry at our government who had attacked its own people."

The images from Beijing horrified the world, including then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. At a national vigil in Canberra, he cried openly while reading out graphic details from a diplomatic cable: "When all those who had not managed to get away were either dead or wounded, foot soldiers went through the square, bayonetting or shooting anybody who was still alive.

"Tanks then ran backwards and forwards over the bodies of the slain, until they were reduced to pulp."

• What were the Tiananmen Square protests about?

Immediately afterwards, Mr Hawke granted visa extensions to all Chinese students in Australia.

Mr Hawke later confirmed that he did not consult his cabinet before announcing the decision. He told The Guardian in 2015: "I have a deep love for the Chinese people... when I walked off the dais I was told: 'You cannot do that, prime minister.' I said to them: 'I just did. It is done.'"

'Everyone felt grateful'

Ultimately, about 42,000 Chinese people took up the offer and forged new lives in Australia. They were given working rights and social support, and later their temporary visas were made permanent.

"Everyone felt so grateful to Hawke for his decision to allow us to stay," says my father, who met Mr Hawke on numerous occasions at Chinese community functions held in the politician's honour. "If he hadn't said that, many of us would have returned to China where we feared it was unsafe, and where we feared China would go backwards."

My mother, Ying Zhu Wang, flew to Australia in 1990 on a student visa. In Sydney, my parents met and married, set up a home and had their first two children. They didn't return to visit China until five years after the massacre.

When Mr Hawke died on 15 May, my parents - like many Chinese Australians - contacted their friends and reminisced. Many will join other Australians at Friday's state memorial service.

One poem by local resident Zhou Weiqiang has been shared widely among Chinese Australians on social media platform WeChat.

It translates to: "The iron man is tender-hearted, tears welling up in public. Judge the situation and make a general pardon. 40,000 children to help Australia prosper. Think of Hawke, we will see you around."

There is also much gratitude towards Mr Hawke for his attitude towards China after the Tiananmen Square protests. "He had good relations with China and its development. He understood us," my mother says.

Jia Lu, a Chinese interpreter and researcher at the University of New South Wales, agrees: "Of course, we are thankful to him for his action after Tiananmen and the visas that allowed us to bring our families over. But people forget too that he was an Australian politician - a rare politician who kept a positive view of China's development."

She estimates that he attended more than 100 events held by community groups over the years.

"He was a real friend to the Chinese. For me and so many of my friends, we will really miss him."

Transforming Australia

Mr Hawke felt the disappointment of Tiananmen deeply because he had been engaging directly with a newly West-looking China, says historian Prof Frank Bongiorno of the Australian National University.

"It's almost beyond inconceivable today for a prime minister to make a unilateral and radical decision like Hawke did," he says. "And he wanted to show Australia as a generous and compassionate society."

The decision drew resistance from some officials and ministers who feared it could overwhelm Australia's migration programme, or lead to resentment among other communities.

But it ended up "transforming the face of Australian multiculturalism", says Dr Christina Ho, a migration expert at the University of Technology.

"They were a particular group - young, students who then went on to be educated, professional people who have made a huge contribution to Australian society."

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Not that it was an easy integration. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was ongoing political debate about the rate of Asian immigration and social cohesion. Many migrants were highly educated but had a poor grasp of English and struggled to find well-paying jobs, says Prof Ho.

"A lot of de-skilling happened in that generation," she says. "But still, they worked hard, integrated into Australian society and raised their own families. Now they're part of the vibrant multicultural society that is Australia today."

This diaspora also became a cultural asset as Australia expanded its trade relationship with China in the 1990s, says Prof Bongiorno.

"You had a significant group of Chinese Australians who were a real resource," he says. "They had the linguistic skills and native sense of the cultural dynamism of Chinese society."

He cites the post-Tiananmen Square intake and Vietnamese migration in the 1970s as two critical points in steering Australia more towards Asia as a society.

Those Chinese students provided support for the next stream of Chinese migrants - largely middle class and from the mainland - who have moved to Australia in the past decade. Asia now accounts for more than half of Australia's migration intake.

"Back in 1989, after Tiananmen, we were all scared - China was a closed door," says my father.

"Bob Hawke - he showed kindness to us students. He gave us opportunity. Although he's died, we still think of him in our hearts and remember him."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48551673

2019-06-13 07:35:27Z
CBMiMWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy93b3JsZC1hdXN0cmFsaWEtNDg1NTE2NzPSATVodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY29tL25ld3MvYW1wL3dvcmxkLWF1c3RyYWxpYS00ODU1MTY3Mw

Bob Hawke: Why Chinese Australians are mourning a 'tender-hearted' PM - BBC News

On Friday, Australians will honour beloved former leader Bob Hawke in a memorial service at the Sydney Opera House. Among them will be many Chinese Australians - including my parents - whose lives changed forever when Mr Hawke offered them asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In June 1989, Chinese troops used guns and tanks to suppress protesters calling for democracy in Beijing, killing an unknown number of people.

Half a world away in Australia, my father Cong Hui Mao watched in horror as the crackdown unfolded on his television set.

He had recently moved from China to Sydney, aged 30, on a one-year student visa. In Australia he found a vast nation with the kind of political freedoms that protesters in China had been calling for. The Tiananmen demonstrations had given him hope, and for weeks he closely followed the "promising flickers" of a new China.

"It was an exciting time - we felt that we were at a crossroads where we could bring up new ideas," he says.

"So when Tiananmen happened, it was like a great fire had been quashed."

In the days following, he joined crowds of Chinese students in Sydney who poured on to the streets to march for their peers at home. "We were grieving but also angry," he says. "So angry at our government who had attacked its own people."

The images from Beijing horrified the world, including then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. At a national vigil in Canberra, he cried openly while reading out graphic details from a diplomatic cable: "When all those who had not managed to get away were either dead or wounded, foot soldiers went through the square, bayonetting or shooting anybody who was still alive.

"Tanks then ran backwards and forwards over the bodies of the slain, until they were reduced to pulp."

• What were the Tiananmen Square protests about?

Immediately afterwards, Mr Hawke granted visa extensions to all Chinese students in Australia.

Mr Hawke later confirmed that he did not consult his cabinet before announcing the decision. He told The Guardian in 2015: "I have a deep love for the Chinese people... when I walked off the dais I was told: 'You cannot do that, prime minister.' I said to them: 'I just did. It is done.'"

'Everyone felt grateful'

Ultimately, about 42,000 Chinese people took up the offer and forged new lives in Australia. They were given working rights and social support, and later their temporary visas were made permanent.

"Everyone felt so grateful to Hawke for his decision to allow us to stay," says my father, who met Mr Hawke on numerous occasions at Chinese community functions held in the politician's honour. "If he hadn't said that, many of us would have returned to China where we feared it was unsafe, and where we feared China would go backwards."

My mother, Ying Zhu Wang, flew to Australia in 1990 on a student visa. In Sydney, my parents met and married, set up a home and had their first two children. They didn't return to visit China until five years after the massacre.

When Mr Hawke died on 15 May, my parents - like many Chinese Australians - contacted their friends and reminisced. Many will join other Australians at Friday's state memorial service.

One poem by local resident Zhou Weiqiang has been shared widely among Chinese Australians on social media platform WeChat.

It translates to: "The iron man is tender-hearted, tears welling up in public. Judge the situation and make a general pardon. 40,000 children to help Australia prosper. Think of Hawke, we will see you around."

There is also much gratitude towards Mr Hawke for his attitude towards China after the Tiananmen Square protests. "He had good relations with China and its development. He understood us," my mother says.

Jia Lu, a Chinese interpreter and researcher at the University of New South Wales, agrees: "Of course, we are thankful to him for his action after Tiananmen and the visas that allowed us to bring our families over. But people forget too that he was an Australian politician - a rare politician who kept a positive view of China's development."

She estimates that he attended more than 100 events held by community groups over the years.

"He was a real friend to the Chinese. For me and so many of my friends, we will really miss him."

Transforming Australia

Mr Hawke felt the disappointment of Tiananmen deeply because he had been engaging directly with a newly West-looking China, says historian Prof Frank Bongiorno of the Australian National University.

"It's almost beyond inconceivable today for a prime minister to make a unilateral and radical decision like Hawke did," he says. "And he wanted to show Australia as a generous and compassionate society."

The decision drew resistance from some officials and ministers who feared it could overwhelm Australia's migration programme, or lead to resentment among other communities.

But it ended up "transforming the face of Australian multiculturalism", says Dr Christina Ho, a migration expert at the University of Technology.

"They were a particular group - young, students who then went on to be educated, professional people who have made a huge contribution to Australian society."

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Not that it was an easy integration. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was ongoing political debate about the rate of Asian immigration and social cohesion. Many migrants were highly educated but had a poor grasp of English and struggled to find well-paying jobs, says Prof Ho.

"A lot of de-skilling happened in that generation," she says. "But still, they worked hard, integrated into Australian society and raised their own families. Now they're part of the vibrant multicultural society that is Australia today."

This diaspora also became a cultural asset as Australia expanded its trade relationship with China in the 1990s, says Prof Bongiorno.

"You had a significant group of Chinese Australians who were a real resource," he says. "They had the linguistic skills and native sense of the cultural dynamism of Chinese society."

He cites the post-Tiananmen Square intake and Vietnamese migration in the 1970s as two critical points in steering Australia more towards Asia as a society.

Those Chinese students provided support for the next stream of Chinese migrants - largely middle class and from the mainland - who have moved to Australia in the past decade. Asia now accounts for more than half of Australia's migration intake.

"Back in 1989, after Tiananmen, we were all scared - China was a closed door," says my father.

"Bob Hawke - he showed kindness to us students. He gave us opportunity. Although he's died, we still think of him in our hearts and remember him."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48551673

2019-06-13 06:42:18Z
CBMiMWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy93b3JsZC1hdXN0cmFsaWEtNDg1NTE2NzPSATVodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY29tL25ld3MvYW1wL3dvcmxkLWF1c3RyYWxpYS00ODU1MTY3Mw

Bob Hawke: Why Chinese Australians are mourning a 'tender-hearted' PM - BBC News

On Friday, Australians will honour beloved former leader Bob Hawke in a memorial service at the Sydney Opera House. Among them will be many Chinese Australians - including my parents - whose lives changed forever when Mr Hawke offered them asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In June 1989, Chinese troops used guns and tanks to suppress protesters calling for democracy in Beijing, killing an unknown number of people.

Half a world away in Australia, my father Cong Hui Mao watched in horror as the crackdown unfolded on his television set.

He had recently moved from China to Sydney, aged 30, on a one-year student visa. In Australia he found a vast nation with the kind of political freedoms that protesters in China had been calling for. The Tiananmen demonstrations had given him hope, and for weeks he closely followed the "promising flickers" of a new China.

"It was an exciting time - we felt that we were at a crossroads where we could bring up new ideas," he says.

"So when Tiananmen happened, it was like a great fire had been quashed."

In the days following, he joined crowds of Chinese students in Sydney who poured on to the streets to march for their peers at home. "We were grieving but also angry," he says. "So angry at our government who had attacked its own people."

The images from Beijing horrified the world, including then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. At a national vigil in Canberra, he cried openly while reading out graphic details from a diplomatic cable: "When all those who had not managed to get away were either dead or wounded, foot soldiers went through the square, bayonetting or shooting anybody who was still alive.

"Tanks then ran backwards and forwards over the bodies of the slain, until they were reduced to pulp."

• What were the Tiananmen Square protests about?

Immediately afterwards, Mr Hawke granted visa extensions to all Chinese students in Australia.

Mr Hawke later confirmed that he did not consult his cabinet before announcing the decision. He told The Guardian in 2015: "I have a deep love for the Chinese people... when I walked off the dais I was told: 'You cannot do that, prime minister.' I said to them: 'I just did. It is done.'"

'Everyone felt grateful'

Ultimately, about 42,000 Chinese people took up the offer and forged new lives in Australia. They were given working rights and social support, and later their temporary visas were made permanent.

"Everyone felt so grateful to Hawke for his decision to allow us to stay," says my father, who met Mr Hawke on numerous occasions at Chinese community functions held in the politician's honour. "If he hadn't said that, many of us would have returned to China where we feared it was unsafe, and where we feared China would go backwards."

My mother, Ying Zhu Wang, flew to Australia in 1990 on a student visa. In Sydney, my parents met and married, set up a home and had their first two children. They didn't return to visit China until five years after the massacre.

When Mr Hawke died on 15 May, my parents - like many Chinese Australians - contacted their friends and reminisced. Many will join other Australians at Friday's state memorial service.

One poem by local resident Zhou Weiqiang has been shared widely among Chinese Australians on social media platform WeChat.

It translates to: "The iron man is tender-hearted, tears welling up in public. Judge the situation and make a general pardon. 40,000 children to help Australia prosper. Think of Hawke, we will see you around."

There is also much gratitude towards Mr Hawke for his attitude towards China after the Tiananmen Square protests. "He had good relations with China and its development. He understood us," my mother says.

Jia Lu, a Chinese interpreter and researcher at the University of New South Wales, agrees: "Of course, we are thankful to him for his action after Tiananmen and the visas that allowed us to bring our families over. But people forget too that he was an Australian politician - a rare politician who kept a positive view of China's development."

She estimates that he attended more than 100 events held by community groups over the years.

"He was a real friend to the Chinese. For me and so many of my friends, we will really miss him."

Transforming Australia

Mr Hawke felt the disappointment of Tiananmen deeply because he had been engaging directly with a newly West-looking China, says historian Prof Frank Bongiorno of the Australian National University.

"It's almost beyond inconceivable today for a prime minister to make a unilateral and radical decision like Hawke did," he says. "And he wanted to show Australia as a generous and compassionate society."

The decision drew resistance from some officials and ministers who feared it could overwhelm Australia's migration programme, or lead to resentment among other communities.

But it ended up "transforming the face of Australian multiculturalism", says Dr Christina Ho, a migration expert at the University of Technology.

"They were a particular group - young, students who then went on to be educated, professional people who have made a huge contribution to Australian society."

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Not that it was an easy integration. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was ongoing political debate about the rate of Asian immigration and social cohesion. Many migrants were highly educated but had a poor grasp of English and struggled to find well-paying jobs, says Prof Ho.

"A lot of de-skilling happened in that generation," she says. "But still, they worked hard, integrated into Australian society and raised their own families. Now they're part of the vibrant multicultural society that is Australia today."

This diaspora also became a cultural asset as Australia expanded its trade relationship with China in the 1990s, says Prof Bongiorno.

"You had a significant group of Chinese Australians who were a real resource," he says. "They had the linguistic skills and native sense of the cultural dynamism of Chinese society."

He cites the post-Tiananmen Square intake and Vietnamese migration in the 1970s as two critical points in steering Australia more towards Asia as a society.

Those Chinese students provided support for the next stream of Chinese migrants - largely middle class and from the mainland - who have moved to Australia in the past decade. Asia now accounts for more than half of Australia's migration intake.

"Back in 1989, after Tiananmen, we were all scared - China was a closed door," says my father.

"Bob Hawke - he showed kindness to us students. He gave us opportunity. Although he's died, we still think of him in our hearts and remember him."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48551673

2019-06-13 03:26:32Z
CBMiMWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy93b3JsZC1hdXN0cmFsaWEtNDg1NTE2NzPSATVodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY29tL25ld3MvYW1wL3dvcmxkLWF1c3RyYWxpYS00ODU1MTY3Mw

Bob Hawke: Why Chinese Australians are mourning a 'tender-hearted' PM - BBC News

On Friday, Australians will honour beloved former leader Bob Hawke in a memorial service at the Sydney Opera House. Among them will be many Chinese Australians - including my parents - whose lives changed forever when Mr Hawke offered them asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In June 1989, Chinese troops used guns and tanks to suppress protesters calling for democracy in Beijing, killing an unknown number of people.

Half a world away in Australia, my father Cong Hui Mao watched in horror as the crackdown unfolded on his television set.

He had recently moved from China to Sydney, aged 30, on a one-year student visa. In Australia he found a vast nation with the kind of political freedoms that protesters in China had been calling for. The Tiananmen demonstrations had given him hope, and for weeks he closely followed the "promising flickers" of a new China.

"It was an exciting time - we felt that we were at a crossroads where we could bring up new ideas," he says.

"So when Tiananmen happened, it was like a great fire had been quashed."

In the days following, he joined crowds of Chinese students in Sydney who poured on to the streets to march for their peers at home. "We were grieving but also angry," he says. "So angry at our government who had attacked its own people."

The images from Beijing horrified the world, including then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. At a national vigil in Canberra, he cried openly while reading out graphic details from a diplomatic cable: "When all those who had not managed to get away were either dead or wounded, foot soldiers went through the square, bayonetting or shooting anybody who was still alive.

"Tanks then ran backwards and forwards over the bodies of the slain, until they were reduced to pulp."

• What were the Tiananmen Square protests about?

Immediately afterwards, Mr Hawke granted visa extensions to all Chinese students in Australia.

Mr Hawke later confirmed that he did not consult his cabinet before announcing the decision. He told The Guardian in 2015: "I have a deep love for the Chinese people... when I walked off the dais I was told: 'You cannot do that, prime minister.' I said to them: 'I just did. It is done.'"

'Everyone felt grateful'

Ultimately, about 42,000 Chinese people took up the offer and forged new lives in Australia. They were given working rights and social support, and later their temporary visas were made permanent.

"Everyone felt so grateful to Hawke for his decision to allow us to stay," says my father, who met Mr Hawke on numerous occasions at Chinese community functions held in the politician's honour. "If he hadn't said that, many of us would have returned to China where we feared it was unsafe, and where we feared China would go backwards."

My mother, Ying Zhu Wang, flew to Australia in 1990 on a student visa. In Sydney, my parents met and married, set up a home and had their first two children. They didn't return to visit China until five years after the massacre.

When Mr Hawke died on 15 May, my parents - like many Chinese Australians - contacted their friends and reminisced. Many will join other Australians at Friday's state memorial service.

One poem by local resident Zhou Weiqiang has been shared widely among Chinese Australians on social media platform WeChat.

It translates to: "The iron man is tender-hearted, tears welling up in public. Judge the situation and make a general pardon. 40,000 children to help Australia prosper. Think of Hawke, we will see you around."

There is also much gratitude towards Mr Hawke for his attitude towards China after the Tiananmen Square protests. "He had good relations with China and its development. He understood us," my mother says.

Jia Lu, a Chinese interpreter and researcher at the University of New South Wales, agrees: "Of course, we are thankful to him for his action after Tiananmen and the visas that allowed us to bring our families over. But people forget too that he was an Australian politician - a rare politician who kept a positive view of China's development."

She estimates that he attended more than 100 events held by community groups over the years.

"He was a real friend to the Chinese. For me and so many of my friends, we will really miss him."

Transforming Australia

Mr Hawke felt the disappointment of Tiananmen deeply because he had been engaging directly with a newly West-looking China, says historian Prof Frank Bongiorno of the Australian National University.

"It's almost beyond inconceivable today for a prime minister to make a unilateral and radical decision like Hawke did," he says. "And he wanted to show Australia as a generous and compassionate society."

The decision drew resistance from some officials and ministers who feared it could overwhelm Australia's migration programme, or lead to resentment among other communities.

But it ended up "transforming the face of Australian multiculturalism", says Dr Christina Ho, a migration expert at the University of Technology.

"They were a particular group - young, students who then went on to be educated, professional people who have made a huge contribution to Australian society."

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Not that it was an easy integration. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was ongoing political debate about the rate of Asian immigration and social cohesion. Many migrants were highly educated but had a poor grasp of English and struggled to find well-paying jobs, says Prof Ho.

"A lot of de-skilling happened in that generation," she says. "But still, they worked hard, integrated into Australian society and raised their own families. Now they're part of the vibrant multicultural society that is Australia today."

This diaspora also became a cultural asset as Australia expanded its trade relationship with China in the 1990s, says Prof Bongiorno.

"You had a significant group of Chinese Australians who were a real resource," he says. "They had the linguistic skills and native sense of the cultural dynamism of Chinese society."

He cites the post-Tiananmen Square intake and Vietnamese migration in the 1970s as two critical points in steering Australia more towards Asia as a society.

Those Chinese students provided support for the next stream of Chinese migrants - largely middle class and from the mainland - who have moved to Australia in the past decade. Asia now accounts for more than half of Australia's migration intake.

"Back in 1989, after Tiananmen, we were all scared - China was a closed door," says my father.

"Bob Hawke - he showed kindness to us students. He gave us opportunity. Although he's died, we still think of him in our hearts and remember him."

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2019-06-13 02:19:32Z
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Bob Hawke: Why Chinese Australians are mourning a 'tender-hearted' PM - BBC News

On Friday, Australians will honour beloved former leader Bob Hawke in a memorial service at the Sydney Opera House. Among them will be many Chinese Australians - including my parents - whose lives changed forever when Mr Hawke offered them asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In June 1989, Chinese troops used guns and tanks to suppress protesters calling for democracy in Beijing, killing an unknown number of people.

Half a world away in Australia, my father Cong Hui Mao watched in horror as the crackdown unfolded on his television set.

He had recently moved from China to Sydney, aged 30, on a one-year student visa. In Australia he found a vast nation with the kind of political freedoms that protesters in China had been calling for. The Tiananmen demonstrations had given him hope, and for weeks he closely followed the "promising flickers" of a new China.

"It was an exciting time - we felt that we were at a crossroads where we could bring up new ideas," he says.

"So when Tiananmen happened, it was like a great fire had been quashed."

In the days following, he joined crowds of Chinese students in Sydney who poured on to the streets to march for their peers at home. "We were grieving but also angry," he says. "So angry at our government who had attacked its own people."

The images from Beijing horrified the world, including then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. At a national vigil in Canberra, he cried openly while reading out graphic details from a diplomatic cable: "When all those who had not managed to get away were either dead or wounded, foot soldiers went through the square, bayonetting or shooting anybody who was still alive.

"Tanks then ran backwards and forwards over the bodies of the slain, until they were reduced to pulp."

• What were the Tiananmen Square protests about?

Immediately afterwards, Mr Hawke granted visa extensions to all Chinese students in Australia.

Mr Hawke later confirmed that he did not consult his cabinet before announcing the decision. He told The Guardian in 2015: "I have a deep love for the Chinese people... when I walked off the dais I was told: 'You cannot do that, prime minister.' I said to them: 'I just did. It is done.'"

'Everyone felt grateful'

Ultimately, about 42,000 Chinese people took up the offer and forged new lives in Australia. They were given working rights and social support, and later their temporary visas were made permanent.

"Everyone felt so grateful to Hawke for his decision to allow us to stay," says my father, who met Mr Hawke on numerous occasions at Chinese community functions held in the politician's honour. "If he hadn't said that, many of us would have returned to China where we feared it was unsafe, and where we feared China would go backwards."

My mother, Ying Zhu Wang, flew to Australia in 1990 on a student visa. In Sydney, my parents met and married, set up a home and had their first two children. They didn't return to visit China until five years after the massacre.

When Mr Hawke died on 15 May, my parents - like many Chinese Australians - contacted their friends and reminisced. Many will join other Australians at Friday's state memorial service.

One poem by local resident Zhou Weiqiang has been shared widely among Chinese Australians on social media platform WeChat.

It translates to: "The iron man is tender-hearted, tears welling up in public. Judge the situation and make a general pardon. 40,000 children to help Australia prosper. Think of Hawke, we will see you around."

There is also much gratitude towards Mr Hawke for his attitude towards China after the Tiananmen Square protests. "He had good relations with China and its development. He understood us," my mother says.

Jia Lu, a Chinese interpreter and researcher at the University of New South Wales, agrees: "Of course, we are thankful to him for his action after Tiananmen and the visas that allowed us to bring our families over. But people forget too that he was an Australian politician - a rare politician who kept a positive view of China's development."

She estimates that he attended more than 100 events held by community groups over the years.

"He was a real friend to the Chinese. For me and so many of my friends, we will really miss him."

Transforming Australia

Mr Hawke felt the disappointment of Tiananmen deeply because he had been engaging directly with a newly West-looking China, says historian Prof Frank Bongiorno of the Australian National University.

"It's almost beyond inconceivable today for a prime minister to make a unilateral and radical decision like Hawke did," he says. "And he wanted to show Australia as a generous and compassionate society."

The decision drew resistance from some officials and ministers who feared it could overwhelm Australia's migration programme, or lead to resentment among other communities.

But it ended up "transforming the face of Australian multiculturalism", says Dr Christina Ho, a migration expert at the University of Technology.

"They were a particular group - young, students who then went on to be educated, professional people who have made a huge contribution to Australian society."

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Not that it was an easy integration. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was ongoing political debate about the rate of Asian immigration and social cohesion. Many migrants were highly educated but had a poor grasp of English and struggled to find well-paying jobs, says Prof Ho.

"A lot of de-skilling happened in that generation," she says. "But still, they worked hard, integrated into Australian society and raised their own families. Now they're part of the vibrant multicultural society that is Australia today."

This diaspora also became a cultural asset as Australia expanded its trade relationship with China in the 1990s, says Prof Bongiorno.

"You had a significant group of Chinese Australians who were a real resource," he says. "They had the linguistic skills and native sense of the cultural dynamism of Chinese society."

He cites the post-Tiananmen Square intake and Vietnamese migration in the 1970s as two critical points in steering Australia more towards Asia as a society.

Those Chinese students provided support for the next stream of Chinese migrants - largely middle class and from the mainland - who have moved to Australia in the past decade. Asia now accounts for more than half of Australia's migration intake.

"Back in 1989, after Tiananmen, we were all scared - China was a closed door," says my father.

"Bob Hawke - he showed kindness to us students. He gave us opportunity. Although he's died, we still think of him in our hearts and remember him."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48551673

2019-06-13 01:36:59Z
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