Albanese says Taiwan ‘status quo’ remains after questions on Chinese media report

Beijing: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has played down claims he declared Australia’s opposition to Taiwanese independence in a meeting with President Xi Jinping as the Chinese government dials up pressure over Labor’s decision to take back the Port of Darwin.

After Premier Li Qiang said the country expected its companies to be treated fairly when they invested overseas, a state media outlet made clear Beijing’s anger at Canberra’s commitment in April to have the port sold by its owner, Chinese company Landbridge, over national security concerns.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the Great Wall at Badaling, near Beijing.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“At present, there are specific issues between China and Australia that need to be discussed, such as the lease of Darwin Port and the expansion of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement,” the Global Times wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.

But it hailed a major improvement in relations between Australia and China that Albanese basked in on Wednesday as he spoke to reporters from the historic Great Wall.

“I have the sense of history following in the footsteps of the Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, who was the first prime minister to visit here in 1973,” he said. “We are literally standing on history.”

Albanese said the port issue – Landbridge has repeatedly said the port is not for sale – had not come up in his meetings with Chinese leaders, but the government would stay consistent on the issue. “My position hasn’t changed over a long period of time,” he said.

China Daily, another state media publication, had earlier claimed Albanese told Xi on Tuesday that Australia did not support Taiwanese independence. “[Albanese] assured Xi that Australia adheres to the one-China policy and does not support ‘Taiwan independence’,” the outlet reported.

Albanese said after the meeting on Tuesday he had conveyed to Xi that Australia supported Taiwan’s current position. The island is a self-governing democratic island of more than 23 million people that maintains informal diplomatic-style ties to Australia. China considers Taiwan to be part of the country’s territory.

“You’re trying to quote a Chinese readout that I haven’t seen,” Albanese said at a press conference on Wednesday in response to a question about his reported position. “What we do is continue to support a one-China policy. We support the status quo. By definition. We don’t support any unilateral action on Taiwan.”

The status quo, in Australia’s view, is that Taiwan should not declare independence unilaterally and China should not retake the island without negotiations.

Anthony Albanese and Li Qiang inspect troops in Beijing on Tuesday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Later on Wednesday, Albanese travelled to Chengdu, a major city in Western China, that has a history of being more liberal than other parts of the country. There the prime minister met with local party officials and held a tennis event.

On Thursday, Albanese will attend a medical technology industry lunch with dignitaries, including Australian Nobel laureate Professor Barry Marshall, and then tour a factory from Australian hearing implant company Cochlear.

China is the world’s largest manufacturer of high-tech devices, but research and technology ties between the country and the West have been strained by allegations of intellectual property theft and strategic tensions.

In a speech to the lunch, Albanese will recall Bob Hawke’s visit to Chengdu in 1986 when the Labor leader went to an Australian-owned circuit board factory.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon arrive in Chengdu.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

He will say that technology remains core to Australia’s trade partnership with China and that both nations can improve by investing in research and manufacturing. “This also depends on continuing to break down barriers by supporting the free and fair trade that enables Australian medtech companies to access the market here in China,” Albanese will say.

While Albanese was touring Beijing this week, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, was also in the city. Asked whether Australia’s strategy of engaging with China through trade despite security issues was repeating Europe’s approach before Russia invaded Ukraine, Albanese said the situations were different.

“I don’t think you can translate one thing across some other part of the world of which Australia is not a participant,” Albanese said. He argued that Australia’s ties with China went beyond trade to dialogue at summits and personal links.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin previously declared a “no-limits” partnership between the nations, and China has been accused of assisting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

Chinese direct investment in Australia has slowed in recent years due to national security concerns about overseas influence in critical industries such as infrastructure and resources.

China has been pushing to lower the barriers to entry mandated by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, which can block attempts at investment or reverse them, such as an order last year to push China-linked investors out of a critical minerals company in Western Australia.

After the pair inspected Chinese troops dressed in immaculate dress uniforms, Li told a business roundtable attended by Albanese on Tuesday night that China was seeking fairness.

“I trust that Australia will also treat Chinese enterprises fairly and also properly resolve the issues [of] market access and review,” he said.

According to figures from consultancy KPMG and the University of Sydney, Chinese investment in Australia increased from $US613 million in 2023 to $US862 million in 2024.

That is still significantly lower than 2008, when it reached $US16.2 billion, or even as recently as 2017, when it was $US10 billion.

Against a backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s mercurial tariff policies, Li positioned China as a force of stability in an unstable world.

“We hope that you will embrace openness and co-operation, no matter how the world changes,” Li said.

“The development of all countries is faced with new challenges. Given such circumstances, China and Australia, as important trade partners, should strengthen dialogue and co-operation.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers was noncommittal when asked last week about China’s wish to speed up foreign investment reviews.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.