China’s Foreign Minister to visit

China’s Foreign Minister is expected to visit Australia in a trip for the first time since 2017, which could signal the end of the country’s wine tariffs.

China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang speaks during a press conference at the Media Center of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.

China’s Foreign Minister is expected to visit Australia in a trip apparently timed to coincide with an end to Beijing’s crippling tariffs on Australian wine.

The visit would be the first by a Chinese foreign minister to Australia since 2017 when Malcolm Turnbull was the prime minister.

Covid travel restrictions, the implosion of the bilateral relationship and – in a Leninist twist last year – the disappearance of China’s now former foreign minister Qin Gang have extended the absence.

Mr Qin was reported to be preparing to visit Australia last June but that trip never happened. The smooth-talking diplomat was instead put into detention and abruptly removed from the high-profile job he had been appointed to only six months earlier.

With that recent history, Canberra is taking an extremely cautious approach to the upcoming visit, which could take place as early as mid-March.

“Any visits by senior officials of foreign governments will be announced at the appropriate time,” a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman told The Australian.

New Zealand’s new Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, has been less tight-lipped, telling local media this week that China’s Foreign Minister would be travelling to Wellington in the near future.

Australia is due to host the Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue.

Expectations of the foreign ministers’ meeting come after Trade Minister Don Farrell’s bullish comments on the future of Beijing’s tariff on Australian wine after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

China is widely expected to announce an end to the crippling 200-odd per cent tariffs by the end of March, which would allow Australian wine producers to again compete in what was their biggest market.

An end of the wine impost would leave the black-listing of Australia’s live lobster trade and the restriction on a clutch of beef abattoirs as the last of China’s trade coercion measures that were once applied to exports worth $20bn a year.

The lobster industry remains in the dark about any progress, with many there concerned they are being kept as leverage for Beijing.

A spokeswoman at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said the govern­ment was “actively engaging with Chinese authorities to progress market access for Australian live lobster”.

Benjamin Herscovitch, an expert on the Australia-China bilateral relationship at the Australian National University, said the visit by China’s Foreign Minister would help set the stage for Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s expected trip to Australia later this year.

Dr Herscovitch noted that while the trip was “almost certain”, Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s Chinese counterpart was expected to change after next week’s national legislative sessions in Beijing. “Who comes remains to be seen,” he said.

Wang Yi, the incumbent, returned to the job last year after Mr Qin’s disappearance. In a highly unusual state of affairs, the veteran diplomat since combined the Foreign Minister role with his more senior job as the Communist Party’s top foreign affairs adviser.

Mr Wang is expected to continue as director of the Communist Party’s Foreign Affairs Commission Office, essentially Xi Jinping’s top international relations adviser.

Senior Chinese diplomats Liu Jianchao, who visited Australia late last year, and Ma Zhaoxu, a former ambassador to Australia, have both been tipped to be elevated to foreign minister.

While there remains much uncertainty about the exact personnel who will be in key Chinese foreign policy positions, Beijing has been much clearer in stating its desire for the future direction of its relationship with Australia. China’s ambassador, Xiao Qian, has urged for the two countries to move “beyond stabilisation”.