‘Lift sanctions and free Cheng Lei’ on recognition anniversary, says Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd has urged Beijing to use the upcoming 50th anniversary of Australia-China relations to lift its trade sanctions against Australia and release detained Australian Cheng Lei.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Picture: AFP

Kevin Rudd has urged Beijing to use the upcoming 50th anniversary of Australia-China relations to lift its trade sanctions against Australia and release detained Australian citizen Cheng Lei.

Delivering the JG Crawford Oration at ANU on Monday evening, the former prime minister said Anthony Albanese’s meeting with Xi Jinping at the Bali G20 summit was a “healthy first step” to restoring stability to the relationship.

Dr Rudd said it would be an “important symbol and signal” if China used the December 3 anniversary “to draw a line under the past by removing these sanctions”.

“That would pave the way for resumption of normal diplomatic discourse across all the substantive questions which currently confront the bilateral relationship,” he said.

Dr Rudd said an early release of Cheng to mark the anniversary would also “cast a significantly positive light on the overall relationship for the years ahead”.

Mr Albanese raised the case of the detained newsreader and another jailed Australian, Yang Hengjun, with President Xi during their talks last week, along with the $20bn a year in Chinese sanctions on Australian exports.

But neither side agreed to any concessions, with The Prime Minister saying he was taking the renewal of the relationship one step at a time.

Dr Rudd said achieving the bilateral meeting – the first for six years – was “no small feat”, but warned there was “formidable” work still to be done.

“We are not Robinson Crusoe on this. Most countries are experiencing similar challenges,” he said.

He said the meeting between Joe Biden and Mr Xi on the sidelines of the G20 was also vital, representing “their first tentative steps towards some form of managed strategic competition”.

But Dr Rudd, whose recently completed PhD argues Mr Xi has brought communist ideology back to the core of the country’s decision-making, said both China and the US had “put a floor” under the relationship in Bali to prevent it going into free fall.