"West Australia and China are natural partners for we are in the same time zone and enjoy geographic proximity," she said. "We have a solid foundation and great prospects for future cooperation. We should fully explore the huge opportunities brought by the BRI." We can jointly build flagship projects featuring green energy such as LNG, lithium and hydrogen, which will contribute to energy security and sustainable development, create jobs and improve the livelihood of the local people. Chinese WA consul-general Dong Zhihua On offer is an impressive shopping list of economic development projects which are pitched squarely at the state government's own strategic ambitions for the creation of jobs. Ms Dong said Belt and Road projects could include LNG, lithium and hydrogen joint ventures, direct flights from China, and better access to Chinese markets for agricultural produce.

She identified tourism and education as "new growth points for cooperation". "Western Australia has the advantage in areas such as AI robots, smart cities, automated transportation, materials engineering, clean energy, bio-pharmaceuticals, which are in line with China's current needs for environmental improvement, urban construction, and health care. The prospects for cooperation are very bright," she said. "What we need most now is trust, vision and action. "I hope that the WA state government and business community will seize the historical opportunity presented by the Belt and Road Initiative and again take the lead in deepening cooperation with China that benefits our people." Australian Strategic Policy Institute Peter Jennings said China was trying to attract Belt and Road signatories for their own political reasons.

"It's designed to promote to the Chinese population a sense of the growth and the power of China around the world and I see absolutely nothing in it for our state governments to pledge allegiance to that particular flag, particularly when the lead indicator from our own federal government has been to say this is risky and something we shouldn't do," he said. "I'm afraid it's just a matter of reality that state premiers don't have access to the sort of defence and intelligence information that informs federal government decision making. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "It's just too easy for premiers to be wowed by the dollars and feted by Chinese officials when they go on visits in ways which frankly are embarrassing to them, but are really just not healthy for the country." Mr Jennings said it wasn't clear that anything was delivered even in cases where governments had signed off on deals.

"For example, Victoria now has had one of these MOUs signed since for 12 months; it doesn't really confer any advantage to the state government because they still have to deal with issues on a project by project basis. "But what it does do is deliver the sense of international political legitimacy Xi Jinping is looking for, which is why his foreign affairs people are out working this patch. "One of the benchmarks for success if you're the Chinese consul-general in Perth, or Melbourne, a benchmark of career success for you is to see if you can find a Premier that's silly enough to sign their name up to it." On Tuesday, Mr McGowan said WA "won’t be signing up". He put the heat on the Commonwealth and urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne to travel to China to improve relations between the nations, repeating comments he made last year about former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government.

But Ms Payne told WAtoday the primary vehicle for deepening Australia’s trade and investment partnership with China was the bilateral Free Trade Agreement between the nations. "Australia is prepared to consider Belt and Road projects on a case-by-case basis according to their individual merits," she said. WA Asian Engagement Minister Peter Tinley said he had recently met with Ms Dong and had discussed a wide range of issues. "I anticipate Ms Dong will continue her strong advocacy of China’s interests during future meetings with state government ministers, including myself," he said. "However the Premier, who is also the Minister for Jobs and Trade and the Minister for Federal-State Relations, has made it very clear that the BRI is not on the state government's agenda.

"The Premier has also indicated the state’s position that the Commonwealth should takes steps to improve the national relationship with China and has encouraged the Prime Minister to visit China as soon as possible." Loading Mr Tinley said he wouldn't provide a point by point analysis of Ms Dong's speech, but the state government "is always interested in further deepening collaborative and cooperative relationships with our trading partners". Mr Jennings, a former Defence Department head of strategy, urged the state government to spend more time diversifying WA's economy and leaving foreign affairs to the Commonwealth. "By all means think about developing projects internationally, but here's a radical thought, why not try to do something that diversifies those economic relationships so it's not just about China, but in fact it's giving us a capacity to protect ourselves if and when the Chinese economy goes bad by building markets elsewhere," he said.