Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will fly to China this week to mark a key diplomatic milestone in the latest sign of easing tensions between the two countries.
Wong is due to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday and will attend Wednesday’s events marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and China.
Her forthcoming travel was announced on Monday, days after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, predicted “further measures and activities which indicate a much improved relationship” over the “coming weeks”.
Building on the recent constructive meeting between prime minister Albanese and president Xi in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, tomorrow foreign minister Penny Wong will travel to Beijing at the invitation of the People’s Republic of China to meet China’s state councilor and minister of foreign affairs, Wang Yi, and hold the 6th Australia–China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “This Dialogue was last held in 2018.”
Wong’s predecessor, Marise Payne, last visited Beijing for talks four years ago.
Tensions between Australia and its top trading partner have increased over the past five years, driven by a range of differences including on human rights, national security and China’s militarisation of disputed features in the South China Sea.
Beijing objected to the Turnbull government’s decision to ban Chinese telco Huawei from the 5G network on national security grounds and its laws against espionage and foreign interference.
But the Morrison government’s call in 2020 for an independent international investigation into the origins and early handling of Covid-19 fuelled an extraordinary diplomatic rift in which Beijing refused to allow phone calls or meetings between ministers and their counterparts for two years.
China in 2020 also rolled out a series of hefty tariffs – together with heightened screening rules and trade bans – on a range of Australian exports including wine, barley, red meat and lobster.
The Albanese government has repeatedly called for those restrictions to be lifted. To date, however, the trade minister, Don Farrell, has been unable to secure a meeting with his counterpart to discuss the trade problems.