PM will head to China within months after accepting Xi Jinping’s invitation

Jakarta: Anthony Albanese will become the first Australian prime minister to visit China in seven years, accepting an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping in the hope his trip can help convince Beijing to drop all restrictions on Australian imports and release detained Australians in China.

Albanese announced he had taken up Xi’s offer to visit Beijing this year after meeting Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Beijing’s second-in-command, on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta on Thursday.

Albanese raised human rights concerns in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong while pleading the case for three Australians facing the death penalty in China, as well as the plight of two other Australians, journalist Cheng Lei and academic Yang Hengjun, who have not yet been sentenced.

Albanese’s visit to China represents the government’s latest step in its push to stabilise relations with Australia’s biggest trading partner after formal dialogue with the superpower broke down in 2020 over pandemic border closure and trade issues.

This will make him the first Australian prime minister to travel to the country since Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.

“China is a major power with global interest and it is valuable to exchange views on challenges to stability, peace and prosperity in our region,” Albanese told reporters following the meeting with Li.

“Australia seeks to work towards productive and stable relations with China based on mutual benefit and respect.”

Albanese said he looked forward to travelling to China to mark the 50th anniversary of former prime minister Gough Whitlam’s historic visit from October 31 to November 4, 1973.

Albanese said it was important to visit Beijing because “co-operation and engagement between our two countries is always improved when there is a dialogue, when there is discussion”.

“Our views will not always align,” Albanese said in his opening remarks during the meeting with Li. “We remain committed to our values and interests, but we understand that dialogue is absolutely critical.”

Detained Australians Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei.Credit: The Age

Albanese previously indicated he planned to travel to China at an appropriate time but had not confirmed he would accept Xi’s invitation to visit this year.

While relations between Australia and China have thawed since Labor came to office in May last year, the prime ministerial visit to Beijing comes as strategic tensions are rising in the Indo-Pacific over China’s growing military and economic clout, as well as growing international condemnation of human rights abuses.

The federal opposition called on Albanese to reconsider his travel plans earlier this year after China placed bounties on Hong Kong activists living in Australia.

On Thursday, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham welcomed the resumption of dialogue but warned Albanese against handing Xi a propaganda victory.

“The test for Prime Minister Albanese will be whether his visit delivers immediate outcomes, especially for Australian exporters and detained Australians,” Birmingham said.

“While any head of government visit involves some degree of ceremony, the degree of outstanding issues regarding China’s unfair targeting of Australia necessitates that this be an overwhelmingly working visit, which will be judged by its results.”

Albanese said that he had raised the cases of journalist Cheng Lei and academic Yang Hengjun, in his meeting with Li, along with expressing that “Australia does not support capital punishment and we will always make representations for Australians who have been given the death sentence for that to be removed”.

The Prime Minister’s Office has not confirmed the identity of the three Australians on death row in China.

Albanese originally planned to meet Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, but the Chinese President is skipping the summit in a significant diplomatic snub to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Albanese will meet Philippines President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos jnr in Manila on Friday for the first bilateral visit by an Australian prime minister to the country since 2003.

However, Malcolm Turnbull met then-president Rodrigo Duterte on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manila in 2017.

Both India and Philippines have expressed their anger over Beijing’s release of a new national map in which it claimed ownership of disputed territory along the India border and in the South China Sea.

Li hailed the “positive momentum of improvement” in the Australia-China relationship since Albanese’s meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last November.

“When our relations are good and sound, both peoples benefit and when things are not doing so well, both sides lose from it,” Li said at the beginning of the meeting.

“A sound and steady China-Australia relationship serves the fundamental interest and common aspirations of both peoples.”

Australian officials estimate the value of Chinese trade blockages on Australian goods has fallen from $20.6 billion a year ago to $2.5 billion after the removal of restrictions on Australian coal, timber and barley.

Restrictions remain on Chinese imports of Australian wine, lobster, beef and some hay.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing in December 2022. Credit: AAP

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao has accepted an offer from Trade Minister Don Farrell to visit his vineyard in South Australia for trade talks, but a date has not been locked in.

Albanese’s meeting with Li came as former foreign minister Julie Bishop and former trade minister Craig Emerson visited Beijing for the first Australia-China high-level dialogue since 2020.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the off-the-record talks alongside Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary Jan Adams.

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