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                <p>WASHINGTON (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday told Americans downcast by their woeful economy not to fear China's giddy rise but stay "clear-eyed" about their differences with the Asian titan.</p>
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"Like you, our relationship with China is important and complex. We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie," she said in a speech to a joint session of the US Congress.</p>
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But "there is no reason for Chinese prosperity to detract from prosperity in Australia, the United States or anywhere in the world," she said. "Prosperity can be shared. We can create wealth together."</p>
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US lawmakers charge that Beijing is an economic predator that keeps its currency -- and thus its exports -- artificially cheap, turns a blind eye to or even encourages rampant US intellectual property theft, and favors domestic producers over their foreign competitors in lucrative government contracts.</p>
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The prime minister told the joint session that "America has always understood this principle of the economy, that everyone can benefit when everyone competes" and stressed: "The global economy is not a zero-sum game."</p>
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Gillard nodded to "momentous" Middle East upheaval but said "it is in the Asia-Pacific where the global order is changing the most," stressing that "the center of global strategic and economic weight is shifting to this region."</p>
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But she reassured her audience that the United States remains an "indispensable" partner and that its "growing engagement" with countries like Japan, India, South Korea and Indonesia was "enormously welcome."</p>
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Gillard vowed to "work closely" with Washington to strengthen bilateral relationships and regional institutions to "manage the frictions of a growing and changing Asia-Pacific."</p>
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"Australia in the south, with South Korea and Japan to the north, form real Asia-Pacific partnerships with the United States, anchors of regional stability," she said.</p>
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            </p></div></div><p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a class="rssreadon" rel="external" title="Gillard tells US not to fear China's economic rise   (AFP)" href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110309/pl_afp/usaustraliachinapoliticseconomy" target="_blank">http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110309/pl_afp/usaustraliachinapoliticseconomy</a></p>