WA iron resources ties key to Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip

China’s No.2 leader is expected to stop in Canberra and Perth and make a site visit to a WA resources project when he visits Australia next month.

Anthony Albanese with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing in 2023. Picture: Twitter

Plans are firming for Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip to Australia next month, with the country’s No.2 leader expected to stop in Canberra and Perth and make a site visit to a West Australian resources project.

Officials in both countries are negotiating the final details of the mid-June visit, which is set to go ahead despite Chinese fury over an upcoming trip by to Taiwan by a delegation of Australian MPs, and an Australian protest over a Chinese jet’s unsafe encounter with a navy helicopter.

Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Mr Li for bilateral talks in Canberra around June 16, before Mr Li heads to Perth for meetings with business leaders and Premier Roger Cook.

The Business Council of Australia will host a CEO roundtable for Mr Li in Perth, to be attended by a the heads of major companies that do business in China, including the big miners, the banks and agricultural exporters.

It’s understood Mr Li will then head to a mine site to illustrate the importance of Chinese demand – and investment heft – to the Australian economy.

Speculation has centred on Rio Tinto’s Western Ranges iron ore project in the Pilbara – a joint venture with China Baowu Steel Group – as the likely location.

The giant’s 46 per cent stake in the $2bn venture is the biggest Chinese investment approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board under Jim Chalmers.

Bob Hawke famously hosted former Chinese Communist Party general secretary Hu Yaobang at Rio’s Mount Channar mine in 1985, paving the way for a joint venture with China’s Sinosteel two years later that kickstarted Australia’s lucrative export trade.

Former Chinese Communist Party general secretary Hu Yaobang surveys the Pilbara's mountains of iron with Bob Hawke in 1985.

Mr Li’s visit will come less than two months after Dr Chalmers announced changes to FIRB rules to strengthen safeguards around investments in critical minerals and infrastructure projects, and those close to Defence sites.

It follows the Prime Minister’s state visit to Beijing in November for talks with Xi Jinping and Mr Li, who urged more favourable treatment of Chinese investment bids.

Businessman Warwick Smith, who until recently headed the BCA’s international engagement and security committee, said the FIRB’s treatment of Chinese companies would again be a key focus.

“It was very much an issue for President Xi and others that Chinese investment into Australia continue, and be dealt with expeditiously and appropriately, especially with existing investors,” Mr Smith told The Australian.

“What they want to say, I think, is: ‘We have been doing this for a long time. We understand and respect your new FIRB rules, but don’t make it harder than it needs to be’.

“The message from China is, ‘Look what our partnership has delivered to you. Don’t send us away’.”

Mr Li’s visit comes at a tense time for Australia-China relations, despite the resolution of nearly all of Beijing’s trade bans against Australian exports except for those on seafood and a number of Australian abattoirs.

This month, Mr Albanese condemned the actions of a Chinese fighter jet that dropped flares in front of an Australian helicopter over the Yellow Sea as “unprofessional and unacceptable”.

Anthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang inspect an honour guard at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in November. Picture: Twitter

China responded by accusing the helicopter of spying on its naval fleet – a charge rejected by the Albanese government.

Beijing also blasted Australia this week over a scheduled bipartisan trip by five federal MPs to ­Taiwan for the inauguration of Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te.

The Chinese embassy in Canberra claimed the trip violated Australia’s “One China” policy.

However, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said the MPs’ trip was “consistent with Australia’s One China policy and with past ­practice”.