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Download Australia on Sunday released an Asia "pivot" white paper calling for deeper engagement with the region that is witnessing a "staggering" rise, while China is apparently at the center of almost every facet of the policy. The long-delayed white paper Australia in the Asian Century, commissioned by the Prime Minster Julia Gillard, outlines 25 objectives for the nation to achieve by 2025 through exploiting the opportunities of Asia's development by becoming a more Asia-literate country. "In this century, the region in which we live will become home to most of the world's middle class and will be the world's largest producer of goods and services, and the largest consumer of them," Gillard said. The Australia China Business Council, Australia's leading organization committed to China engagement, described the paper as a "wake-up call to both Australian political and business sectors that need to lift our game if the Asian Century is to amount to anything more than rhetoric", Xinhua reported. Analysts said China's motor for Australia's economic evolution during the global recession is the top reason behind Canberra's largest effort yet to articulate the link between the two countries. As Australia's economic ties with China deepened, the correlation between the quarterly motion in Australian and Chinese GDP increased steadily in the lead-up to the 2008 global financial crisis, the report said. | 
