Anthony Albanese meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20
The PM used his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping to discuss a detained Australian journalist, human rights abuses and China’s influence on Russia.
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Australia’s concerns about human rights abuses, citizens detained in China, trade sanctions and regional security have been put directly to Xi Jinping by Anthony Albanese in his first meeting with the Chinese President.
The Prime Minister told Mr Xi Australia would “not resile” from its values and interests during the 32-minute meeting on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit in Bali on Tuesday.
The formal bilateral was the first of its kind for an Australian leader in six years, with Mr Albanese describing it as “very constructive”.
“We have big differences to manage, but we‘re always going to be better off when we have dialogue,” he said.
During the meeting Mr Albanese highlighted unfair Chinese sanctions on $20 billion of Australian exports, later saying while he did not expect an immediate resolution he was buoyed by Mr Xi’s comments.
“One of the things that struck me was that both of us spoke about how we have highly complementary economies,” Mr Albanese said.
“It is clearly Australia’s interest to export some of the fine products that we have, and it’s China’s interest to receive those fine products.”
Mr Albanese confirmed he specifically raised the plight of Australian journalist Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun – who are both jailed in China in cases shrouded in secrecy – with Mr Xi.
The meeting was also used to express Australia’s concerns about Taiwan, the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang and the need for global co-operation to tackle climate change.
“On Taiwan … I put Australia‘s position (forward), which is support for the status quo … and that we didn’t wish to see any change to that,” Mr Albanese said.
The Prime Minister said he asked Mr Xi to use China’s influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine, in particular threats to use nuclear weapons.
“I noted that China had called that out and that is a good thing,” he said.
The two leaders shook hands before taking their seats for the formal talks, which included nine officials from the Chinese side and six Australians.
Mr Xi spoke first, telling Mr Albanese he was “glad” to meet him for the first time.
“Since you assumed the leadership, you have talked about China-Australia relations on various occasions and expressed multiple times that you would handle China-Australia relations in a mature manner,” he said.
“I attach great importance to your opinion.”
Mr Xi said compared to China’s relationship with other developed countries, its ties with Australia had “long been at the forefront” and “deserved to be cherished”.
He said in recent years the relationship had experienced “some difficulties,” which was something China did “not like to see”.
“Since China and Australia are two important countries in the Asia Pacific region, we should change, maintain and develop our relationship,” Mr Xi said according to a translation.
“This is in the fundamental interests of the people from both countries.”
The two leaders did not formally agree to a future meeting or delegation visit, but the upcoming 50th anniversary of Australia-China relations in December is widely seen as another opportunity to continue to stabilise the relationship.
US President Joe Biden met with Mr Xi for more than three hours on Monday night, seen as a sign both world powers were eager to improve communications after the relationship hit new lows this year.
Following the meeting Mr Biden told reporters “there need not be a new Cold War” with China if both nations ensured competition did not lead to conflict.
He said he did not believe there was “any imminent attempt on the part of China to invade Taiwan”.
Australia’s vocal condemnation of human rights abuses in China, calls for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and criticism of Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea has angered the Chinese Government in recent years.
China was furious when its state-owned telco Huawei was banned from having any role in the construction of Australia’s 5G network.
Since 2020 the Chinese Government has hit Australia with a series of tariffs and trade blocks on a range of exports including barley, red wine, beef and coal.
More recently the signing of a secret security pact between China and the Solomon Islands has seriously concerned Australia.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has welcomed Mr Albanese’s meeting with Mr Xi, but said Beijing’s rhetoric on Australia meeting China “half way” had “no substance”.
“The reality is that the economic coercion attempts being made on Australia, the trade sanctions applied on Australia, are unfair, they’re unjustified,” Mr Birmingham said.
“There’s not a halfway point in relation to those.”
Originally published as Anthony Albanese meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20
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