Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye heads home without farewell from Marise Payne

China’s top diplomat in Canberra, who spearheaded Xi Jinping’s campaign of economic coercion against Australia, is Beijing-bound after finishing his posting.

Cheng Jingye has finished his posting in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

China’s top diplomat in Canberra, who spearheaded Xi Jinping’s campaign of economic coercion against Australia, is heading home to Beijing after completing his posting in Australia.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told a Senate estimates hearing that Ambassador Cheng Jingye was “about to depart if he has not already departed”.

She said she had not spoken to Mr Cheng to farewell him.

“I spoke to the Chinese ambassador some time ago now. My office spoke to him last week prior to his departure,” Senator Payne said.

Mr Cheng’s departure was only announced to Canberra’s diplomatic community on Tuesday, and he is due to leave Australia by the end of the month.

Senator Payne said Beijing had notified the government of his proposed successor, but the government was yet to formally approve the candidate in a diplomatic process known as “agrement”.

His looming departure comes as Foreign Affairs officials warned the security situation between China and Taiwan had deteriorated significantly, with the potential for “catastrophe” due to miscalculation by military forces.

“It is very serious. We are concerned about the increase in air incursions into the air defence identification zone,” Deputy Secretary Justin Hayhurst told the committee.

“We consider the risk of some sort of miscalculation is higher than it was before.”

However, he said conflict was “still something that we judge is not likely in the immediate term”.

Mr Cheng arrived in Australia in 2016, later adopting the “Wolf Warrior” style of Chinese diplomats across the world amid growing international criticism of the country.

He was one of the first to raise the prospect last year that Australia could be economically punished by Beijing over its calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.

The threat later became a reality, with more than $20 billion in trade bans subsequently slapped on Australian exports including beef, barley, lobsters, coal, copper and wood.

The Chinese Embassy under his leadership also issued an extraordinary list of 14 grievances with Australia that were purportedly “poisoning bilateral relations”.

They included Australia’s ban on Huawei participating in the 5G network, its move to end Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with Beijing, and its diplomatic protests against China’s behaviour in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

Senator Payne confirmed she had not spoken to her Chinese counterpart since early in the Covid pandemic, despite her best efforts.

Ambassador Cheng had become isolated from Canberra’s diplomatic community before he finished in his role.

One of his last public events as Ambassador was to host a staged press event called “Xinjiang is a Wonderful Land”, in which he sought to undermine credible independent reporting of repression, forced labour and sterilisation of Muslims in China’s northern region.

“Any people, any country, should not have any illusion that China would swallow the bitter pill of interfering or meddling in China’s internal affairs trying to put so-called pressure on China,” he said.

“We will not provoke but if we are provoked, we will respond in kind.”