Australia–Taiwan relations

Relations between the Commonwealth of Australia and the Republic of China, formerly the Qing dynasty, date back to 1909. Since 1972, the political status and legal status of Taiwan have been contentious issues. Australia and Taiwan share partnership in the inter-governmental Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) activities.

Australia's current position towards Taiwan is largely based on the Joint Communiqué with the People's Republic of China signed by the Whitlam Labor government in 1972 on the outcome of UN Resolution 2758 as international situation turned against ROC, even though Australia voted supporting Republic of China's seat in the UN instead of Communist China. Under this agreement, the Australian government diplomatically recognises the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the 'sole legitimate government of China', and do not recognise the ROC as a sovereign state, while merely acknowledging Beijing's position that "Taiwan was a province of the PRC".

As of April 2022, only 13 UN member states and the Holy See officially recognized Taiwan. The Joint Communiqué establishes ‘(diplomatic) guidelines for official Australian contact with Taiwan,’ explicitly stating that Australia 'does not (diplomatically) consider Taiwan (the unofficial name of ROC) to have the status of national government.' Despite the Australian government not having an official diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, an official Bilateral Economic Consultation is held annually by high-ranking Ministry of Economy officials of both sides and there is a substantial unofficial relationship has developed through cultural and trade links, however, other than conventional industry, Australian firms rely on a mature international financial market to capitalise from the strong scientific/growing technical research due to high tax rate in Australia, and Taiwan does not have this attribute, but Taiwan's highly Americanized specialist workforce may assist Australia's firms to internationalise the vision, especially with the competency on analytical research. Therefore, it is likely Taiwan may benefit from the relations with Australia on University spin-off rather than research spin-off. On international trade, Australia and Taiwan are complementary.