Xi Jinping set to skip G20 summit, dashing Albanese’s meeting hopes

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s hopes of meeting Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next week’s G20 summit appear to have been dashed, with the Chinese president expected to deliver host India a diplomatic snub by skipping the high-powered event.

Albanese had hoped to use what would have been his second meeting with Xi to further thaw relations with China and lay the groundwork for a visit to Beijing by the end of the year.

Anthony Albanese met China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Bali last year.Credit: James Brickwood

The revelation that Xi is expected to skip the G20 in New Delhi came as former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop prepares to travel to China next week on a sensitive back-channel diplomatic mission.

Former Labor trade minister Craig Emerson is also set to visit Beijing alongside Australian business leaders, scholars and cultural representatives for the first Australia-China high-level dialogue to be held since early 2020, when relations between the two nations plummeted.

Quoting two Indian officials and one diplomat based in China, Reuters reported on Thursday that Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who is effectively Xi’s deputy, is expected to represent Beijing at the September 9-10 meeting.

It is possible Xi may attend the East Asia Summit in Jakarta earlier in the week, an event Albanese will also attend.

India said earlier this week it had lodged a “strong protest” with China after Beijing released a new version of its standard map showing Aksai Chin – an area of Kashmir mostly controlled by China – and the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh within Chinese territory.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi met at the BRICS summit in South Africa last week and agreed to “intensify efforts” to reduce tensions along the border.

Albanese told parliament earlier this month: “I met with Xi Jinping in November last year, and I’m sure that we will potentially meet again on the sidelines of the G20 meeting that will be coming up in the future.”

Xi attended last year’s G20 summit in Indonesia, where Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only invited leader to skip the event.

Bishop, who served as foreign minister from 2013 to 2018, will attend the Australia-China high-level dialogue, which was launched in 2014. It is known in diplomatic parlance as a “1.5 track” forum, meaning conversations include a mix of government officials participating in an unofficial capacity and non-government experts.

Former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop is headed to China to help repair bilateral relations.Credit: Andrew Meares

Bishop said she would be briefed by DFAT on the agenda for the trip over the coming days.

The dialogue is co-hosted by DFAT and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, an official Chinese government think tank.

The private talks typically feature former senior politicians from both Labor and the Coalition.

A source familiar with the planning of the event but not authorised to speak publicly said they expected it would feature a “frank and fearless” exchange of views, adding it was the latest demonstration of a steady thaw in tensions between the two nations since the election of the Albanese government.

China last month removed tariffs on Australian barley imports, following previous moves to lift sanctions on Australian timber and coal that were introduced in 2020.

Emerson declined to comment on the trip, which has yet to be formally announced.

Benjamin Herscovitch, a China expert at the Australian National University, said it was unlikely the event would lead to specific policy outcomes but added: “This is important because of what it says about how the bilateral relationship is changing.

“Beijing wants to turn back on the mechanisms that signal warmth and understanding in the relationship.”

Former prime minister John Howard co-chaired the most recent high-level dialogue in Sydney in January 2020, which was also attended by former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing.

The most recent meeting was also attended by China’s then-ambassador to Australia and officials from China’s ministries of commerce and foreign affairs as well as the then-head of DFAT and Australia’s ambassador to China Graham Fletcher.

Jennifer Staats, a China expert at the United States Institute of Peace, has described 1.5-track dialogues as a form of back-channel diplomacy that allows “government officials to discuss sensitive issues in their personal capacity, where they can go beyond government talking points and explore new ideas without fear that their comments will be made public”.

“These closed-door discussions help policymakers better understand the motivations and interests of the other actors and get a clearer sense of how their policy initiatives are perceived by their foreign counterparts,” Staats said.

“Track 1.5 dialogues also provide an opportunity to solicit feedback on ‘trial balloon’ policy ideas and alternative approaches, so that they can be refined and improved before they feed into the official policy process.”

DFAT was approached for comment.

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