Talks break the ice but PM won’t bow to China

Penny Wong will speak with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and is expected to raise Beijing’s sanctions and detained Australians.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is set to discuss the removal of Chinese sanctions on imports as well as the fate of two detained Australians during her upcoming visit to Beijing.

Anthony Albanese says Australia won’t bow to Beijing and will continue to call for Chinese leaders to respect global rules as Penny Wong prepares to depart for the first official visit to China by an Australian government minister in four years.

The Foreign Minister will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday – the 50th anniversary of Australia-China diplomatic relations – in a likely precursor to a Prime Ministerial trip to China next year.

Beijing has agreed the meeting will be considered “the sixth Australia – China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue”, reactivating a key element of the nations’ comprehensive strategic partnership that had lain dormant since 2018.

Senator Wong carries with her the hopes of the families and friends of Australians Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun, who remain detained in China, and of Australian exporters whose businesses have been smashed by two years of Chinese trade sanctions.

Writing in The Australian, Mr Albanese invokes Gough Whitlam’s decision in 1972 to recognise Communist China, saying the former Labor prime minister “envisioned a world of greater opportunity and prosperity for Australia”.

He says Whitlam’s decision was “an act of national maturity” based on a belief in the importance of dialogue and engagement.

“Those principles guide us still as we seek to stabilise the relationship and build a better future,” the Prime Minister writes.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets China's President Xi Jinping in a bilateral meeting during the 2022 G20 summit.

Mr Albanese, whose meeting with Xi Jinping at the G20 in Bali last month paved the way for Senator Wong’s trip, says his government will “always be guided by our interests and values”.

“Australia seeks a stable relationship with China between two equal partners; we will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must and always act in the national interest,” he says. “We will continue to support the rules-based order and regional stability.”

Supporters of Ms Cheng and Dr Yang are cautiously optimistic the visit could be a step towards their release, but believe any breakthrough is still some time off.

Ms Cheng, a Chinese-born Australian journalist, has been detained since August 2020, while Dr Yang, a writer and academic, has been held since January 2019. Both are accused of espionage offences.

Ms Cheng’s partner, Nick Coyle, said: “This is the third Christmas that the kids haven‘t seen their mum, and we’d certainly urge the Chinese system to find a compassionate and speedy resolution.”

Dr Yang’s friend, UTS Associate Professor Feng Chongyi, said he believed there was an opportunity to secure the Australians’ release if the government made them “the top priority, rather than business”.

“I hope they will put the release of Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei as item number one,” Dr Feng said.

He said there was a long – standing impression that Australia was dependent on China. But Australia had shown it could diversify its markets, while China needed Australian iron ore, coal and natural gas, he said.

“So Australia is actually in a position of strength to negotiate with China, and if China wants to improve the relationship the first thing it needs to do is release the two Australian citizens,” Professor Feng said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing hoped the meeting would deliver “mutual benefit and win-win results”, seeking common ground “while reserving differences”.

She said China wanted use the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations to “strengthen dialogue, expand co-operation, manage differences and push bilateral relations back on the right track for sustainable development”.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham welcomed Senator Wong’s upcoming visit to China as “essential to advance areas of mutual interest and to manage differences”.

“It was always counter-productive for the Chinese government to cease ministerial dialogue for a period of time and the resumption of face-to-face dialogue has been welcome,” Senator Birmingham said.

He said the success of the visit would be judged on its outcomes, and particularly on progress towards the removal of trade sanctions and an improvement in the position of Ms Cheng and Dr Yang.

Senator Birmingham said Australia should continue to insist China abide by international law, seek greater transparency from Beijing on human rights issues, and urge China to use its influence on Russia to end its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Australia’s Uighur community fears the official visit will undermine Australia’s advocacy on behalf of ethnic Muslims detained in China’s Xinjiang region.

“If she goes there to shake hands and open up business as usual again, that’s really, really disappointing,” the president of the Australian Uighur Tangritagh Women’s Association, Ramila Chanisheff, said.

She said the trip was particularly concerning given Australia was yet to apply targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions against Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses against her people, despite imposing such sanctions on Russians and Iranians.

“Actions speak volumes and only actions will stop this genocide from continuing,” she said.

“You can say you're sympathetic until the cows come home, but that doesn’t really help the Uighur in their plight, does it?”

The trip comes ahead of a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken next year to follow up on Joe Biden’s meeting with President Xi in Bali, where they agreed to put a floor under their countries’ spiralling relationship.

Penny Wong will attempt to restore unity with Beijing and push an easing of sanctions on Australian imports into China.

Asia Society Australia policy director Richard Maude said China’s decision to label the meeting as formal “foreign and strategic dialogue” was a positive sign, using diplomatic architecture that had existed since Julia Gillard visited China in 2013.

“It opens the door for a leaders‘ meetings that is something more than, certainly in China’s eyes, an engagement in the margins of the G20 or some other major international meeting,” he said.

Mr Maude said it was unclear why Beijing was re-engaging so positively, but Australia remained a vital economic partner to China, which faced a “a very difficult domestic and global environment”.

Australian Institute of International Affairs president Allan Gyngell, a former director-general of the Office of National Assessments, said Senator Wong was a skilled operator who would deliver a careful and coherent message to Mr Wang.

“I think what you will get is what you have seen; that is direct, polite, respectful discussions, which won’t surprise either the Chinese or Australian observers,” he said.

Businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, who made his fortune selling iron ore to China, said the visit was “another important step” to restoring the bilateral relationship.

“A strong and stable relationship between Australia and China is beneficial to all,” he said.

“My hope is that this friendship continues for generations to come, including as we work to realise our shared vision of a pollution-free future and a planet powered by green energy.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: WILL GLASGOW