Beijing congratulates new PM Anthony Albanese and says it wants to ‘face the future’

China’s Premier Li Keqiang has congratulated Anthony Albanese on becoming PM, saying China is ready to ‘face the future’ after freezing relations.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has congratulated Anthony Albanese. Picture: Getty Images

China’s Premier Li Keqiang has congratulated Anthony Albanese on becoming Prime Minister, ending an almost three-year long freeze on relations between Australia and China.

In his message, Mr Li said the healthy and stable development of China-Australia relations was in line with the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two peoples, and was also conducive to peace, stability, development, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, according to state-owned Xinhua news agency.

He singled out the Labor Party for “making the right choice” in 1972 by breaking ties with Taipei to recognise the People’s Republic of China.

“In the 1970s, the Australian Labor Party government made the right choice … making a historic contribution to the development of China-Australia relations.”

Earlier, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China was willing “to work with the new Australian Labor government to review the past, face the future, and uphold mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win results”.

The comments were made as Mr Albanese flew to Tokyo – along with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the head of Australia’s Office of National Assessments Andrew Shearer – for a meeting of leaders of the China-focused Quad grouping, hours after being sworn in as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister.

Beijing is furious about the grouping, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday warning that the “Cold War mentality” of America and its allies was undermining Asia’s “peace and prosperity”.

China got even angrier after US President Joe Biden, at a meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister on Monday, said America had made a “commitment” to use military force to defend Taiwan if China attempted to take the island by force.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs assessed in 2021 that Beijing appeared to have decided to “wait out” the Coalition after its economic coercion campaign failed to change Canberra’s policy settings.

Beijing banned all ministerial contact with the Morrison government in late January 2020. It also imposed trade strikes – which remain in place – on Australian exports previously worth more than $20bn a year.

Some Australian foreign policy experts have cautioned the Albanese government not to rush any outreach by Beijing.

“Any such approaches should be treated with a healthy dose of caution and scepticism – China’s intent would be to re-gear the relationship on terms more favourable to it,” advised Richard Maude, a former senior Australian diplomat, now at the Asia Society Australia.

China’s official party state media on Monday said that Beijing was hopeful about improving the relationship, which they said had broken down because of the Coalition’s “anti-China crusade”.

The Global Times said the end of the Morrison government was “a turning point” for the relationship.

“We wish the new Australian government can bring the bilateral relationship back to the right track,” the masthead said in an editorial.

The more sober China Daily said Albanese’s trip to the Quad had “dashed hopes of an uptick” in relations.

The China Daily said Labor had historically had a more “pragmatic approach” and welcomed the election loss of Morrison, who it called an “eager beaver” for his support of America’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

But the masthead’s editorial acknowledged there had been a fundamental shift in attitudes towards China in Canberra.

“It should be noted that a bipartisan consensus has already been formed, if not become entrenched, in Australia that China is a threat to Australia’s security and regional interests,” it wrote.