China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, meets with Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong at Parliament House in Canberra, on March 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

China and Australia claimed to have stabilised long-strained relations after talks in Canberra on Wednesday, despite evident tensions over a high-profile prisoner, trade and a new crackdown in Hong Kong.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Australia for the first time since 2017, a trip designed to draw a line under disputes related to everything from the origins of Covid-19 to military deployments.

The meeting was framed by warm words, with Wang saying the two sides had “broken the ice”, and that “mutual trust” and “good momentum” were slowly building.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong praised renewed “stability” in relations and said it was crucial to recognise “how much progress we have made in a short period of time”.

There was even a tacit commitment to extending the Australian sojourn of two giant pandas loaned by China in 2009 — a favourite tool of Beijing diplomacy.

But years of tensions and a fundamental disagreement about the shape of the Asia-Pacific region could not be papered over.

“We discussed the sentencing of Dr Yang Hengjun. I told the foreign minister Australians were shocked at the sentence imposed,” Wong told reporters after the meeting.

Jailed Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun — also known as Yang Jun — was in February handed a suspended death sentence after a Beijing court found him guilty of espionage.

He vehemently denies the charges.

Wong also raised concerns about human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, where pro-Beijing lawmakers on Tuesday passed national security reforms that will further criminalise dissent.

An Australian foreign ministry official said Wong had warned the reforms would “further erode rights and freedoms”, breach international commitments and have “far-reaching impacts, including on individuals in Australia”.

The remarks are unlikely to have gone down well with Wong’s Chinese guest.

Beijing has described similar criticism from Britain, the United States and the European Union as “slandering and smearing”.

As the foreign ministers met, protesters gathered on the lawns of Australia’s parliament, drawing attention to alleged human rights abuses within China.

A small group of demonstrators later clashed with police outside the Chinese embassy, brandishing Tibetan flags and shouting “free Tibet” as they rushed towards the building’s front gates.

Trade restrictions

Australia’s relationship with China began unravelling in 2018, when Canberra excluded telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G network on security grounds and later passed laws on foreign interference.

Then in 2020, Australia called for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 — an action China saw as politically motivated.

In response, Beijing slapped trade restrictions on a slew of Australian exports, including barley, beef and wine, while halting its coal imports.

Most of those barriers have been gradually wound back as relations have been repaired.

Wang said a final decision on ending wine tariffs would be made at the end of the month, signalling restrictions could soon be lifted.

Before the trade restrictions were imposed, China was the largest destination for Australian bottled wine — accounting for 33% of export revenue in 2020, according to Australian government data.

Wong said the talks had also touched on the global nickel market, which has been upended by a surge in exports from Indonesia — enabled by massive Chinese investments and a revolution in refining techniques.

Prices have fallen about 40% in the past year alone, prompting many once-dominant Australian firms to rethink projects or write down the value of their assets.

Wang later told an Australia-China business council that common interests between the two countries far outweigh their differences.

“China is Australia’s largest trading partner and the biggest customer for our products like iron ore”, said Rio Tinto mining executive and meeting participant Simon Trott, welcoming a “stabilisation” of relations.

Sydney:

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the country’s first openly gay female parliamentarian, has married her partner Sophie Allouache, Wong said on Sunday.

“We are delighted that so many of our family and friends could share this special day with us,” Wong said on social media platform Instagram, alongside a photo of her and Allouache in wedding attire and holding a bouquet of flowers.

Wong and Allouache have been together for nearly two decades and tied the knot on Saturday at a winery in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Wong represents the state of South Australia in the senate.

A Labor senator since 2002, Wong is the first Asian-born person to hold an Australian cabinet position.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Australia in 2017, a watershed for a country where homosexuality was not decriminalised in all states until 1997.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Australia will send a delegation of industry, government, academic, media and arts representatives to Beijing for a dialogue with their Chinese counterparts next week to stabilise its relationship with China, Canberra’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Trade, investment, people-to-people links as well as regional and international security are among the issues up for discussion in next Thursday’s talks, Foreign Minster Penny Wong’s office said.

The high-level dialogue had been held annually from 2014 until it was stopped in 2020.

In a statement, Ms. Wong added that the talks represent “another step towards increasing bilateral engagement and stabilising our relationship with China”.

Former Trade Minister Craig Emerson will head the Australian delegation, which also includes their former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop.

“Since it was established, the dialogue has been an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding with Chinese participants and to find common ground,” Mr. Emerson said in a statement.

Li Zhaoxing, China’s former Foreign Affairs Minister, will lead Beijing’s delegation.

The dialogue’s resumption is the latest example of ties thawing between Beijing and Canberra after years of tension.

China had been angered by Australia’s legislation against overseas influence operations, its barring Huawei from 5G contracts and its call for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But relations appear to have warmed since the centre-left government in Canberra adopted a less confrontational approach to China following its election last year.