Tokyo | A top Chinese official has told Australian business leaders that Beijing wants to “move forward” and repair economic relations with Canberra, but says bilateral ties cannot return to where they were before tensions emerged six years ago.

China’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ma Zhaoxu, made the comments during an intimate dinner in Sydney on Tuesday night with a select group of Australians he already knew from his time as ambassador in Canberra almost a decade ago.