Anthony Albanese will raise human rights, trade and Australia’s concerns about the militarisation of the South China Sea when he meets Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday during the first visit to China by an Australian prime minister since 2016.
Albanese has signalled he intends to raise the plight of the Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has been detained for more than four years in China. Ahead of his departure, the prime minister also called on the Chinese government to issue visas to Australian journalists, allowing them to report once again from the mainland.
Albanese will kick off his official program on Sunday in Shanghai at the sixth China International Import Expo before travelling to the Chinese capital to meet president Xi, premier Li Qiang and the chair of the National People’s Congress, Zhao Leji. Albanese will be hosted by the premier and will be received for his meetings with China’s leaders on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
The looming visit – one of the more important and delicate diplomatic forays of Albanese’s prime ministership – signals Australia has emerged from the diplomatic deep freeze. The visit is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first visit to China by then Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1973.
(April 1, 2020) China reacts furiously to Morrison's call for Covid-19 investigation
China's foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, says: ‘We advise the Australian side to put aside ideological bias and political games.’ Later in the month, China’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, says: ‘Maybe the ordinary people will say, “Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?”’ The Australian government interprets the comments as economic coercion.
(May 1, 2020) China imposes 80% tariffs on Australia’s barley exports
The move follows an 18-month-long investigation by China’s commerce ministry into ‘dumping’ – when a product is sold into an overseas market at artificially low prices – and the effect of government subsidies.
(August 1, 2020) China floats the idea of tariffs on Australian wine
Beijing initiates an anti-dumping investigation. Wang Xining, the deputy head of mission of China’s embassy in Australia, says the Australian government had shown a lack of courtesy by failing to consult the Chinese government before calling for the Covid investigation. The Morrison government escalates, flagging new powers to stop state, territory and local governments as well as universities entering agreements with foreign governments that it considers detrimental to Australia’s foreign policy objectives.
(August 1, 2020) News breaks that Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei is detained in China
The Australian government is advised of that development on 14 August.
(November 1, 2020) Chinese officials in Australia detail a list of 14 grievances
A Chinese official is quoted saying: ‘China is angry. If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy.’ Morrison rebukes Zhao Lijian, one of China’s high-profile ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats, for sharing a fake image of an Australian soldier slitting the throat of an Afghan boy, a reference to the Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces soldiers.
(March 1, 2021) China imposes tariffs of 116–218% on bottled Australian wine imports
The tariffs are set through 2026, shutting the door on Australia’s largest export market.
(April 1, 2021) Peter Dutton says the prospects of a battle over Taiwan should not be ‘discounted’
Dutton, the then defence minister, says: ‘I think China has been very clear about the reunification. If you look at any of the rhetoric that’s coming out of China, particularly in recent weeks and months in response to different suggestions that have been made, they’ve been very clear about that goal.’
(September 1, 2021) Australia, the US and the UK unveil the Aukus nuclear submarine pact
The agreement is a strategic response to China’s expansionist drive in the South China Sea and increasing belligerence towards Taiwan. China says the agreement reflects a ‘cold war mentality’.
(November 1, 2021) Peter Dutton declares Beijing wants to reclaim Taiwan
He also says all Australian major cities are within range of Chinese missiles.
(February 1, 2022) Morrison brands Labor deputy leader Richard Marles a ‘Manchurian candidate’
The phrase ‘Manchurian candidate’ refers to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power. Australia’s domestic spy chief, Mike Burgess, declares that the weaponisation of national security is ‘not helpful to us’.
(May 1, 2022) Labor wins the Australian federal election
Diplomatic sources say China sees ‘a good opportunity’ to ease tensions in the period after the vote.
(June 1, 2022) Australia's deputy prime minister Richard Marles meets China’s defence minister
The meeting is the first between Australia and China’s defence ministers in more than two years.
(July 1, 2022) Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong has discussions with her counterpart Wang Yi in Bali
Wong says Canberra and Beijing have taken the ‘first step towards stabilising the relationship’ after the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers since 2019.
(November 1, 2022) Australia's prime minister Anthony Albanese meets the Chinese premier Li Keqiang at a gala dinner in Cambodia
It is the first leader-to-leader dialogue between the two countries since 2019. A few days later, Albanese meets Xi Jinping. He tells the president Australia will continue to assert its values and principles, but makes clear his government wants to steady the fractured relationship with Beijing. He also raises objections to the damaging trade sanctions and concerns about the detentions of Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun.
(April 1, 2023) Australia announces ‘a pathway’ agreed with China over barley tariffs
While China conducts an expedited review of the measures, Australia agrees to temporarily suspend its challenge against the tariffs through the World Trade Organization dispute process.
(August 1, 2023) China agrees to remove the barley tariffs
Australia says it will press for the removal of wine tariffs.
(October 1, 2023) Cheng Lei is freed and reunited with her family in Australia
Albanese confirms he will visit Beijing and Shanghai in November – the first visit to China by an Australian prime minister since 2016. Albanese also confirms China has agreed to review its wine tariffs. The two countries agree to suspend their long-running WTO dispute while Beijing undertakes an ‘expedited review‘ of duties. The Australian government rules out cancelling a Chinese company’s lease over the strategically important Port of Darwin.
(November 1, 2023) Yang Hengjun's children plead with Albanese to negotiate his release
They say his situation is critical and their father, who has been detained for more than four years in China, risks ‘being left to die’. Albanese says in response he has raised the case before, and will raise it again.
As a prelude to the trip, Australia has recently secured the release of the journalist Cheng Lei, and China has stepped back from punitive trade sanctions imposed at the height of the war of words with Canberra which began when the Chinese telco Huawei was barred from Australia’s 5G rollout in 2018 and intensified dramatically after Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 in 2020.
While a thaw is under way, Australian officials stress the bilateral relationship between Canberra and Beijing is not the same as it was in 2016.
One official told journalists the rapprochement that has unfolded over the past 12 months was not a “journey back to the future”. The intention was to stabilise a relationship that is “extremely important to Australia” while dealing with China in a manner consistent with regional stability and security.
Albanese said on Thursday that Australia wanted to look for areas “where we can cooperate when we can, and disagree where we must”. The prime minister said the Australia’s diplomatic strategy during the re-engagement with its most significant trading partner was “patient, calibrated and deliberate”.
Australia believes that during the visit China will request Australia’s support for it to join the big regional trade deal known as the CPTPP.
The Labor government – and the Coalition government before it – repeatedly stressed that the CPTPP had high standards and any new entrant would need to meet those high standards. This coded language meant China was unlikely to pass the test, particularly while trade sanctions against Australian export products remained in place.
Unsourced reports in recent months have indicated that the Australian government might be prepared to soften that position, although this has previously been denied.
Entry of a new member to the CPTPP – which now has 12 members, given the UK recently joined – requires unanimous support of existing members. If Australia were to drop any rhetorical opposition to China’s entry as a pragmatic step, it would still be unlikely to be approved given that Japan is strongly opposed to signing off on it.
Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell, said after his meeting with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, in May: “I reiterated that any economy that sought to accede to the CPTPP must have a demonstrated track record of complying with trade agreements. I also indicated that Australia would work with the CPTPP membership to consider all accession applications on a consensus basis.”
Australian officials say Australia’s current “focus” is on “bedding down” the CPTPP with its existing members. While not categorically ruling out a rethink, an official said Australia’s position on the matter remained “as has already been articulated”.
Albanese’s visit to China follows an official visit to Washington last week. The US president, Joe Biden, will also meet China’s president in coming weeks. Strategic competition between the US, Australia’s most important security partner, and China, its biggest trading partner, has destabilised the Indo-Pacific.
Albanese welcomed the looming meeting between Biden and Xi at the Apec conference. Dialogue between the superpowers was “a good thing”, Australia’s prime minister said.
