‘Don’t wait’ to go to Beijing, Julie Bishop tells Anthony Albanese

Julie Bishop says China’s reappointment of Wang Yi as the country’s foreign minister ‘augurs well’ for Australia’s relationship with Beijing.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Julie Bishop says China’s ­reappointment of Wang Yi as Foreign Minister ­“augurs well” for Australia’s relationship with Beijing, and has urged Anthony Albanese to travel to Beijing as soon as possible to accelerate the thaw in bilateral ties.

Ms Bishop, a former foreign minister and now ANU chancellor, told the National Press Club that China would always be a “challenging partner”, but Australia had strong economic and strategic reasons to get the relationship back on track.

The Prime Minister is currently weighing an invitation from Xi Jinping to visit China by the end of the year or delay the trip until Beijing drops its trade bans and ­releases detained Australians Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun.

Ms Bishop said Mr Albanese shouldn’t wait for the issues to be resolved. “I would accept the ­invitation. I would attend graciously. The trade barriers and the outstanding thawing of relations would be at the top of my agenda,” she said.

Ms Bishop, who was publicly dressed down by Mr Wang on her first trip to Beijing as foreign minister, said her former Chinese counterpart was a “highly professional diplomat” who understood Australia.

Mr Wang was reappointed this week as China’s Foreign Minister after the disappearance of the incumbent, rising star Qin Gang, in mysterious circumstances. Mr Qin has not been seen for a month and is the subject of rumours of an affair with a prominent Hong Kong television presenter.

Ms Bishop said: “I know Wang Yi well. He has an unceasing ability to promote China‘s national interests. He knows Australia well. I think he augurs well for the relationship.”

She said she always had professional dealings with Mr Wang except on one occasion, “but we won’t go into that”.

In December 2013, Mr Wang opened a meeting with Ms ­Bishop by declaring Australia had “jeopardised bilateral mutual trust”. The comment followed her decision to haul in Beijing’s ambassador to protest a Chinese air identification zone in the East China Sea.

Ms Bishop said in her speech that “megatrends” ­including ­artificial intelligence, global power shifts, climate change and the backlash over globalisation were reshaping the world.

She called for Australia to play a mediating role between the great powers to de-escalate tensions on Taiwan, and said it was time the UN called a forum along the lines of its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to develop safeguards around the development of artificial intelligence.

Amid rumours of a potential return to diplomatic life, Ms Bishop refused to say whether she had been sounded out by the Albanese government as Australia’s next ambassador to France, saying she would not play the “rule in, rule out” game.

“That would be a matter ­between me and whoever was doing the asking,” she said. “But I can assure you that I am more than delighted with my role at the Australian National ­University.”

The Productivity Commission has reported that China’s long-running trade bans on Australian exports have had virtually zero impact on the economy, underlining the ­nation’s resilience to such coercive conduct.

Ms Bishop said China’s ­actions had forced Australian exporters to diversify, which was “good trade policy”.

She said Australia should continue to look for new export markets, but should not hesitate to re-engage with its biggest trading partner. “We need to be part of the global economy and China is a significant part of that economy,” she said.