Chinese Premier Li Qiang is tipped to visit a lithium processing plant in Perth to highlight China’s appetite for Australian resources and investment in the sector, juxtaposing the West’s determination to break Beijing’s strategic stranglehold on critical minerals needed for the energy transition.

Lobster fishers are also hopeful Mr Li’s visit to Australia next week will herald the end of a de facto ban on exports to China and mark the finish of Beijing’s campaign of trade sanctions that targeted $20 billion of commodities at its peak.