PM Scott Morrison declined to meet new Chinese ambassador

Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined a meeting with China’s new ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, despite a formal request from the Asian nation’s new top diplomat.

Instead, Mr Xiao met Foreign Minister Marise Payne in Sydney several weeks ago in what was the most senior contact between the two nations in years, though they failed to resolve any outstanding disagreements.

China’s new ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, requested to meet Prime Minister Scott Morrison, but it was declined.

While it is relatively rare for ambassadors to meet with the Prime Minister, diplomats from key Australian allies including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore do have some access.

Ambassadors from strategically significant international partners, including China and Indonesia, are also granted access in special circumstances.

Former prime ministers Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull all met with China’s ambassadors to Australia during their time in office. However, foreign ministers typically take the lead in meeting ambassadors because of a prime minister’s relative seniority. The Australian Ambassador in Beijing has not met President Xi Jinping or Premier Li Keqiang.

Chinese President Xi Jinping.Credit: afr

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister confirmed Mr Morrison had not met the Ambassador.

“The Foreign Minister has met Ambassador Xiao, as is appropriate”.

A senior government source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Beijing’s request to meet an Australian prime minister would have to come from a higher office – potentially that of President Xi or Premier Li.

The relationship between the two countries has been in the diplomatic deep freeze for close to two years and Mr Xiao’s request for a meeting came as Mr Morrison attacked Labor as relatively weak on China and questioned whether it would stand up to Beijing.

In meetings with Australians in the private sector in recent weeks, Mr Xiao said he was carrying a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping for the Australian government: “Australia has been treating China like the enemy. Australia has to decide whether it is China’s enemy or China’s friend”.

John Blaxland, a professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the Australian National University said it was likely the meeting was declined because “I don’t think it works for the PM’s rhetorical posturing on national security and the characterisation of China in adversarial terms”.

“To be fair, [a meeting] is something both sides would probably want to avoid until the election is clear, and the ambassador would know that. Anthony Albanese wouldn’t want to be too sympathetic either,” he said.

“China would be eager to capitalise on the optics of a meeting and use it for its own purposes in terms of demonstrating that it is being the more magnanimous and broad-minded of the parties.”

The revelation that Mr Morrison declined the meeting comes as Australia and New Zealand signalled they will push to stop a security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands from being signed.

There is deep concern in Canberra, Wellington and Washington about the implications of a potential base for Chinese naval vessels right on Australia’s doorstep that will be able to cut off key supply lines into Asia and the Pacific in the event of a conflict.

On Friday Mr Morrison urged the Solomon Islands to remember Australia’s work in the Pacific, and New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta warned the arrangement could “destabilise the current institutions and arrangements that have long underpinned the Pacific region’s security”.

“This would not benefit New Zealand or our Pacific neighbours,” she said.

NZ High Commissioner Georgina Roberts directly raised Wellington’s concerns with Honiara on Friday. The Ardern government is also attempting to establish contact with Beijing over the draft agreement revealed on Thursday.

Since being appointed Ambassador and arriving in January, Mr Xiao has met with former Australian prime ministers Paul Keating and John Howard and reportedly exchanged views on the development of China-Australia relations. He also met Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong and former foreign minister Julie Bishop.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne met with the Chinese Ambassador in place of the PM.Credit: Steven Siewert

The Ambassador has struck a conciliatory tone in public comments since arriving in Australia in January but the essential impasse between the nations – China’s government demanding Australia make concessions in 14 areas of its sovereignty – has not changed.

According to a readout provided to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Senator Payne “set out frankly Australia’s positions on a range of issues, including the importance of appropriate ministerial and other high-level dialogue and engagement, stability in the Indo-Pacific, free and open trade, human rights and the welfare of Australians detained in China” during her meeting with the Ambassador.

Senator Payne said “Australia remains committed to a constructive relationship with China in which we can pursue areas of co-operation” but this was conditional on “remaining consistent with our own national sovereign interests and focused on stability”.

The relationship between China and Australia has been strained by Canberra’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, as well as by the so-called Pacific step up, which is designed to increase Australia’s diplomatic focus and the amount of aid that flows to the Pacific states.

China responded by imposing trade boycotts on more than $20 billion of Australian goods.

In his meetings with the former prime ministers Keating and Howard, Mr Xiao made clear the Chinese government was “willing to work with the Australian side to review the past, face the future, uphold the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and jointly promote the development of China-Australia relations along the right track”.

The Chinese embassy in Canberra was contacted for comment.

with Eryk Bagshaw and Farrah Tomazin

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