Anthony Albanese lands in China for talks with Xi Jinping
The PM has arrived in China on a high-stakes mission to stabilise ties with the nation’s biggest trading partner and most potent strategic competitor.
Anthony Albanese has arrived in China on a high-stakes mission to stabilise ties with the nation’s biggest trading partner and most potent strategic competitor.
Disembarking from his RAAF plane at Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport about 9pm AEDT, Mr Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to set foot on Chinese soil in seven years.
He was given a red-carpet welcome by China’s Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian, Australian Ambassador to China Graham Fletcher, and Shanghai’s vice mayor Xie Dong.
Mr Albanese said: “It’s very good to be here, I look forward to the visit.”
He received a bouquet of flowers from a young girl before being ushered into a waiting motorcade.
The landmark trip for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang would have been virtually unthinkable under his predecessor Scott Morrison, whose government fell out badly with Beijing sparking three years of punitive Chinese sanctions on Australian exports.
Speaking in Darwin ahead of his departure, Mr Albanese said the trip was “the result of the patient, calibrated and deliberate approach that we have to the relationship with China”.
“The fact that it is the first visit in seven years to our major trading partner is a very positive step and I look forward to constructive discussions and dialogue with (the) President and the Premier during my visit to Shanghai and Beijing.”
He reiterated he would seek the release of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has been locked up by China for four years and nine months for alleged espionage offences.
“I will be saying that Dr Yang’s case needs to be resolved and I will be speaking about his human rights, the nature of the detention and the other transparent processes,” Mr Albanese said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Mr Albanese’s trip was of “great significance” and provided “a chance to review bilateral ties and chart the way forward”.
The Chinese government spokesman said the Prime Minister would have an “in-depth exchange of views” with China’s leaders.
“A sound and stable bilateral relationship serves the fundamental interests of both countries,” Mr Wang said on Friday evening.
“Through this visit, China hopes to work with Australia in the spirit of mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences and mutual benefit to strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust, expand co-operation, deepen friendship, and keep bilateral ties on a steady course of improvement and progress,” he said.
Albanese visit hailed as a ‘new chapter’
Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the Global Times, said it was hoped the visit would “herald a new chapter of bilateral relations” between the countries.
“Albanese’s visit is more like saying goodbye to the most troublesome page of bilateral relations and moving toward a new chapter,” it said.
The Prime Minister was due to attend the opening banquet of the China International Import Expo on Saturday night.
He was one of four international leaders invited by China to attend the opening of the Shanghai trade show, along with the prime ministers of Cuba, Kazakhstan and Serbia.
The Chinese premier will host them at a welcome banquet on Saturday evening, before giving a keynote address to open the trade show the following morning.
PM’s China agenda
Mr Albanese is also due to return to the trade show on Sunday where 200 Australian companies will be represented.
He will fly to Beijing that night, ahead of a much-anticipated meeting with President Xi on Monday evening AEDT in the Great Hall of the People.
On Tuesday he will meet Premier Li at the same venue, followed by a working lunch with the number two leader before flying home.
Labor has worked since the May 2022 election to take the heat out of the Australia-China relationship through painstaking diplomacy and cautious public statements, after tensions flared under the Turnbull and Morrison governments.
China has eased most of its trade bans on Australian products, and is reviewing its crippling sanctions on Australian wine. Australian rock lobster exporters and a few red meat abattoirs are hopeful their products will be given the green light by China soon.
Australia viewed as US ‘chess piece’
Chinese academic Chen Hong – who was stripped of his Australian visa in 2020 after he was deemed by ASIO as a security risk – told the Global Times that with the nations’ trade ties improving, there was positive momentum in the relationship.
He said Australia had become an American “chess piece” in the Indo-Pacific, but Beijing could live with Australia’s alliance with the US as long as it did not jeopardise China’s national security.
“Is Australia really ready to play such chess, particularly when it isn’t in its best interests?” he said.
But Australian officials have warned Mr Albanese’s trip will not represent a “back to the future” moment for the nations, as Beijing challenges the strategic status quo across the Indo-Pacific.
The trip comes a week after the Prime Minister arrived home from a state visit to Washington, where Joe Biden warned him against fully trusting the authoritarian nation.
Mr Albanese, who says he will “co-operate with China where we can and disagree where we must”, has vowed to raise all of the difficult issues between the countries spanning consular cases, trade, the South China Sea, and threats against Taiwan.
Dr Yang’s family was buoyed by the recent release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei after more than three years detention, and has appealed for Mr Albanese to prioritise his case in his talks with China’s leaders.
But Dr Yang’s case is tougher than that of Ms Cheng, as the dissident was reportedly once an officer with China’s main intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security.
Repairing frayed ties
Beijing had been furious with Australia since the Turnbull government’s crackdown on foreign interference, and its move to block high risk Chinese telcos Huawei and ZTE from Australia’s 5G network.
The relationship went from bad to worse under the Morrison government, which infuriated Beijing by calling for an independent investigation into the origin of Covid-19.
It put Australia in the deep freeze weeks later, imposing trade bans weeks on $20bn in Australian exports.
But its campaign of economic coercion had virtually zero effect on Australia’s economy, with most of the banned exporters finding alternative markets.
President Xi and Premier Li are expected to appeal directly to Mr Albanese for Australia to green light the country’s application to join the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for trans-Pacific Partnership.
But the Prime Minister will push back, amid assurances to Japan and the United States, telling his hosts the CPTPP has the highest possible standards for entry and requires unanimous agreement of members to allow new entrants.
Mr Albanese will instead use his three-day visit to the country to try and reinvigorate the bilateral China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, resolve lingering Chinese trade bans on Australian products, and focus on how to avoid future disputes.
‘Opportunity to stabilise China ties’
Trade Minister Don Farrell says the Albanese government is very hopeful China will remove all remaining trade tariffs as a result of Anthony Albanese’s visit to the Asian nation.
Speaking to Sky News from China, Senator Farrell said the trip gives Australia the opportunity to “completely stabilise” its relationship with China.
“We’re hopeful that as a result of this visit, that we can get that down to zero and that the remaining impediments to lobster and beef will be removed,” Senator Farrell said.
Senator Farrell said the government could “walk and chew gum at the same time” with the Prime Minister working to keep up Australia’s defence relationship ith the US and maintain trade with China.
“We can walk and chew gum at the time time ... we’ve got a very strong defence relationship with the United States and we’ve got a terrific trade relationship with China. Last year, our trade with China was $299bn.”
Differences with China to be managed ‘widely’
Assistant Foreign Minister Tim Watts Australia can grow its relationship with China and stand up for the national interests by managing “our differences widely”.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Watts denied accusations the Albanese government had compromised Australia’s national interest as it seeks to resolve trade tensions with China.
The comments come after opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the government has made concessions with China including pausing its efforts at the World Trade Organisation on China’s trade tariffs and its human rights abuses.
Mr Watts said Senator Paterson had “fundamentally misunderstood” the importance of high level dialogue between China and Australia.
He said the Albanese government would engage with China in the national interest while also continuing to seek a strategic balance in the region.
“We’ve said that we’ll be calm and consistent in pursuing our relationship with China and we can grow our relationship with China while also standing up for our national interest,” he said.
Australia ‘must be clear-eyed about China’
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson says Australia must be “clear eyed” about China’s track record on human rights arguing fundamental tensions in the relationship remain.
Speaking to Sky News, Senator Paterson said the opposition would offer bipartisan support for Anthony Albanese’s visit to China but that the government should not seek a reset in the relationship.
He also said China’s decision to remove trade sanctions on Australian products was because they were unsuccessful.
He said trade tariffs showed the Australian economy was “remarkably resilient”.
“The reason why they’re stepping back from this economic coercion campaign is yes, there has been a change of government which provides them with a plausible offering but fundamentally they changed their approach because it didn’t work,” he said.
Mr Patterson said the Prime Minister should tell China it will not consider its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership until it stops using trade as a tool of economic coercion.
“It would even be even better if he did so while he was there in China to make very clear that this is one of the highest standard agreement in the world and it would be absurd if Australia of all countries were to support its admission which until recently it had been responsible for $20bn of unlawful and unjustified tariffs against a country which until recently it has a free trade agreement,” he said.
“Countries with a track record on trade like that should not be a part of a high standard agreement.”
- With Jess Malcolm
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