Beijing praises Penny Wong, indicates Australian coal ban to end

Beijing’s new comments appear to be an attempt to reframe a recent meeting between Penny Wong and her Chinese counterpart.

Beijing has praised Penny Wong. Picture: DFAT/Sarah Friend

Beijing has praised Penny Wong for “positive elements” in her recent remarks on China, as the Xi administration indicated it will soon end a two-year ban on Australian coal.

The new comments by China’s foreign ministry — delivered days after a state media outburst at Defence Minister Richard Marles — appeared to be an attempt to reframe a recent meeting between the Foreign Minister and her Chinese counterpart, coverage of which has focused on a list of four points Beijing said were required to improve the relationship.

“China has noted the positive elements of the statement of the Australian side,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday night.

“China-Australia relations are presented with both challenges and opportunities. We hope the Australian side can seize the opportunities, shape up a right perception of China, stay committed to seeking common ground while putting differences aside when getting along with China, and take concrete actions to build more positive dynamics for improving bilateral relations.”

The Foreign Ministry spokesman’s comments were delivered along with a party state media editorial that indicated Beijing is preparing to end its unofficial black-listing of Australian coal, which it has mostly blocked since mid-2020.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Picture: AFP.

But the China Daily, an English language masthead often used by Beijing to speak to foreign governments, said while the coal ban would likely soon end, volumes were not expected to return to their pre-2020 levels.

“Chinese importers may not have as strong an appetite to import Australian coal as before,” the party state masthead said.

David Lamont, chief financial officer of resources giant BHP, said he hoped Beijing would end all its trade bans.

“Not only for coal but for other commodities that they’ve actually banned,” Mr Lamont told The Australian’s Strategic Business Forum on Wednesday.

“I will just say — consistent with the theme of this (forum session) around resilience — I think that when those bans came in place it did show the resilience across the Australian economy that we were able to find other markets for the commodities that we produce,” he said.

Beijing’s signalling comes as the Chinese economy has been hit by elevated resource prices and restrictions from President Xi Jinping’s signature “Covid zero” policy.

The praise of Senator Wong’s “positive elements” was in reference to comments made a week earlier on Australian breakfast television.

In an interview, Senator Wong challenged the media characterisation of the four points in the official Chinese summary of her meeting with her counterpart Wang Yi.

“I’m not sure I would describe what was put out as a four-point plan. Those are, essentially, the points that the Chinese have made for some time. They’re reasonably high-level rhetorical points and they’re reasonably unsurprising,” she said.

The reporter at the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, described them as a “four-point plan put out by China” in a vetted question to the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Tuesday.

Natasha Kassam, a former Beijing-based Australian diplomat now at the Lowy Institute, said China was attempting to “turn down the temperature” in the bilateral relationship.

“The post-Bali statement was essentially restating China’s position on ties with Australia, and they probably didn’t anticipate the subsequent headlines around the four points,” said Ms Kassam, the director of Lowy’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program.

“It seems as though Beijing’s couched messages about positivity are an attempt to extend that window of opportunity. However, the positive tone doesn’t change the fundamental tensions in the relationship, and likely won’t shift any policy positions in Canberra,” she said.

The four points listed in Mr Wang’s statement were that Australia must treat China as a “partner rather than a rival”; the two countries must seek “common ground while shelving differences”; Australia must not “not target any third party or be controlled by any third party”, which may include Canberra’s advocacy for other countries to block Chinese telco Huawei from their 5G networks; and both countries must build “public support featuring positiveness and pragmatism”.