Photo: IC

The city council of Australian city Wagga Wagga on Wednesday revoked its vote to sever its sister city relationship with Chinese city Kunming, after receiving opposition and criticism from local politicians and residents, the Consulate-General of China in Sydney, and the Kunming government.

The Chinese Consulate-General issued a statement on its website, welcoming the city council's motion to rescind its previous resolution.

Observers and analysts said the revocation showed that the original decision made by some city councilors was simply a farce and did not represent the consensus of the city's residents.

The vote itself was only an incitement by some extreme politicians, so it was not surprising that it was overturned by the dominant view of Wagga Wagga residents that cutting ties with its sister city at this point will do no good but hurt the feelings of people in Kunming and harm its own interests, Su Hao, founding director of the Center for Strategic and Peace Studies at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Greg Conkey, mayor of Wagga Wagga, who pushed for the vote to be overturned, said the council had received 48 emails from local residents about the decision, 47 of which opposed severing the relationship with Kunming, according to Australian media.

Wagga Wagga city council voted to cut its relationship of more than 30 years with Kunming on April 14 after one councilor claimed that China should be held responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was severely criticized by the city's community leaders and the council called an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to rescind the vote.

Deputy Prime Minister and Member for Riverina, Michael McCormack, also called for the decision to be reversed, according to ABC News.

The Chinese Consulate-General on April 15 expressed regret over the council's decision and urged it to handle the issue quickly to avoid further negative impacts on overall cooperation between the two sides.

Kunming also expressed opposition to the decision on April 16, condemning the slanderous remarks about China made by the extremist councilors.

"The revocation of the vote showed that Wagga Wagga people clearly see that the two cities' relationship is regional and cultural and should not be turned into a complicated issue, mingled with international politics at the state level," said Su.

Yu Lei, a chief research fellow at the Research Center for Pacific Island Countries, Liaocheng University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the city council's previous motion to cut ties based on the smearing of China's anti-pandemic efforts was unreasonable and also politicized the current global fight against the pandemic.

Rescinding the motion helped to stop the issue from getting bigger and worsening, Yu noted.