Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will fly to Beijing in the next two months to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s historic visit to China.
The visit will be the first by an Australian prime minister to China since 2016.
Mr Albanese had been widely tipped to visit China this year, having met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Bali last year.
That meeting was widely seen as the stabilising of relations between the two nations following years of tension.
In recent years, China imposed crippling trade sanctions on Australian imports. It came in the aftermath of the then-Coalition government supporting an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.
Mr Albanese made the announcement after holding “respectful” and “constructive” talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta.
He told journalists that he told the premier he would accept President Xi’s invitation to visit China “later this year at a mutually agreeable time.”
“The cooperation and engagement between our two countries is always improved when there is a dialogue, when there is discussion, that is how you get mutual agreement, mutual respect and advance the interests of both our nations,” he said.
The prime minister said he had used the meeting to raise the cases of imprisoned Australians Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei, who recently marked three years in jail.
“I raised Cheng Lei and her case and put forward my view — which is the view I think that Australians have … that Australians are very much conscious of this case and they want to see Cheung Lei reunited with her children,” he told reporters.
Mr Albanese also said he had raised the cases of three Australians “sentenced to capital punishment” in China and that Premier Li had listened “respectfully” to Australia’s concerns.
One of those cases is likely former actor Karm Gillespie, who was sentenced to death for smuggling ice into China in late 2013.
But it’s not clear who the other Australians are.
Australia still seeking an end to trade war
Mr Albanese said he had also pressed China to keep on unwinding trade impediments in the wake of Beijing’s move to drop barley tariffs last month.
Australia has proposed that it pause WTO action against China over wine tariffs if Beijing agrees to conduct a rapid review of those barriers – but hasn’t yet received a formal response.
The prime minister said he hadn’t specifically raised the wine tariffs but that both leaders had “acknowledged” the barley dispute had been resolved and that both countries had an “interest in working these issues through.”
He also said he raised Australia’s concerns about humans rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
Beijing has been stuck in an increasingly acrimonious disputes with several neighbours after releasing its latest official map, which includes disputed border territories that India also claims, as well as large swathes of the South China Sea claimed by South-East Asian nations
Mr Albanese wouldn’t be drawn on whether he’d pressed Premier Li over regional tensions, although in his opening statement he said he was keen to discuss “geostrategic issues, with a view to maintaining stability and managing competition peacefully.”
“We don’t go into every detail of meetings held here,” he said.
“I’ve said I raised human rights issues. I also raised issues which are the subject of discussion in the region including Taiwan and including the South China Sea.”
