News Analysis: New Aussie PM Turnbull stanch supporter of China-Australia FTA

Australia's new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has only been in the job for four days but has already made it clear that one of his most important tasks is to have the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) pass through the parliament.

In emphasizing his foreign policy priorities during his first week in office, Turnbull has gone out of his way to publicly support both ChAFTA and the importance of strong relations with China.

During a speech on Monday, which came just hours before his successful challenge of then Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the Liberal Party leadership, Turnbull spent precious time throughout his six-minute address highlighting ChAFTA's importance to Australia.

Turnbull labeled the trade agreement as "one of the most important foundations of our prosperity" and said he was to compelled to challenge Abbott for the leadership because it had become clear that the opposition Labor Party could oust the government at the next election - therefore putting ChAFTA at risk.

"If we continue with Abbott as prime minister, it is clear enough what will happen: he will cease to be PM and he will be succeeded by (Opposition leader) Shorten. You only have to see the catastrophically reckless approach of Shorten to ChAFTA to know he 's utterly unfit to be prime minister of this country," Turnbull said.

An ongoing parliamentary inquiry into ChAFTA is expected to conclude next month, while its report is due to be delivered to on Oct. 12.

The coalition government has previously envisaged the deal being approved by both houses of parliament by the end of December.

Six weeks earlier, in a speech to the China-Australia Business Forum in August, Turnbull was adamant that ChAFTA needed to succeed, saying Australia would be at a "competitive advantage" once the deal is approved.

"The ChAFTA lays a historic foundation for the next phase of Australia's economic relationship with China," Turnbull said on Aug. 6.

"Most significantly, the unprecedented market access China has offered to Australia under ChAFTA puts our firms at a significant competitive advantage," he said. "It lays the foundation for much faster export growth across many services ... (and makes it) so easy for Australian businesses of all sizes to reach new and expanding markets in China."

The prime minister said Australia's relationship with China stretched back further than most people realized, explaining how China's role in World War II was pivotal to creating fledgling relations with Australia in the 1940s.

Turnbull said that, had China's perseverance waned during the conflict, Japanese attacks on the Australian mainland could have extended to much more than a handful of bombing raids.

"Japan had 680,000 troops in China at the time it launched its Pacific offensive - four times the number it deployed to sweep through South East Asia until they were stopped in the jungles of New Guinea and in the Coral Sea," he said.

"Had China's leaders chosen to reach an armistice with the Japanese, Japan would have been able to redeploy its armies in China in our direction," said Turnbull. "Without China's endurance and courage in the face of Japan our war history may have ended very differently indeed."

Turnbull's cabinet colleague and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had said in an interview in January last year that "(Australia's) single most important economic partner is, in fact, the United States."

Turnbull, however, has described China as Australia's most important trading partner, and the key to a prosperous Australia.

His understanding of the Chinese business scene came largely due to his time as an investment banker, when - first as principal of Whitlam, Turnbull & Co. then later at Goldman Sachs - he was directly exposed to the machinations of China's corporate world.

Also, his son, Alex, is married to a Chinese woman, whose maiden name was Wang Yiwen. Not since former prime minister Kevin Rudd has Australia - or indeed the world - had a leader with such a strong Chinese affiliation and understanding as Turnbull.

This week, Australia's newest premier - amid all the other issues competing for his attention - has returned repeatedly to his pet theme: the success of ChAFTA. It represented, he said, a " huge opportunity" that Australia cannot let slip.

"We are in the most exciting, creative, disruptive time of human history," Turnbull said.

"China is a big part of it - perhaps the biggest single part of it - and we need to be as mindful as the Chinese are of the need to re-balance our economy. And in this, the shift of the Chinese leadership to focus on the 'qualitative' features of its economy, presents a huge opportunity for Australian businesses." Endi