China’s Rule of Law is Australia’s Business

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of China’s rule of law, in the context of commercial corruption, on the Australia-China business relationship. This paper involves the analysis of three separate case studies: the ‘Melamine milk case’, the ‘Stern Hu case’ and the ‘Matthew Ng case’. The research undertaken in this paper is divided into two main sections. The first section involves a content analysis of media frames in both the Chinese and Australian news coverage in three separate cases. The section undertakes a critical analysis of Australian media and political discourse concerning the three cases. This research demonstrates the different conceptions of the rule of law between China and Australia, and that essentially China’s practice of the rule of law impacts on Australia. This paper’s originality is in its refinement about understanding China’s rule of law and its place in broader debates concerning the Australian-China business relationship. Moreover, this dissertation takes a unique research angle in this field through the use of discourse analysis.