The prime minister’s visit to a prickly Beijing will be watched closely for tone and content, at home and among allies.
The shadow-boxing around a prime ministerial visit to China has ended. Meeting China’s premier, Li Qiang, on the margins of the East Asia Summit this week, Anthony Albanese said he would visit before the end of the year. The question now is not when to go, but how to go.
China’s decision to lift punitive tariffs on Australian barley in the face of a losing hand at the World Trade Organisation, for example, adds to the broader stabilisation of bilateral ties since the election and paves the way for a similar outcome on wine. It was reasonable to consider whether the prime minister should go to China in such circumstances. But Beijing appears to have reached the end of its willingness to dole out what it regards as concessions to Australia to enable a prime ministerial visit. A breakthrough may now be more likely through direct leader-level diplomacy in Beijing.
In addition to pressing for freedom for Cheng and Yang and for a full normalisation of the trade relationship, the Prime Minister will need to push President Xi on a long list of difficult global issues. Among these are China’s threats to use force against Taiwan, the geopolitical contest in the Pacific, and the imperative of Russia ending its war with Ukraine on just terms.While in China, the instinct might be to find only positives to accentuate.
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