Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits China to strengthen trade relations

BEIJING — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kicked off a visit this weekend to China meant to shore up trade relations between the two countries.

Albanese met with Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining on Sunday, the first in a series of high-level exchanges that will include meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Chairman Zhao Leji of the National People’s Congress.

The prime minister is leading “a very large business delegation” to China, which speaks to the importance of the economic relations between Australia and China, he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN upon his arrival in Shanghai on Saturday.

During a weeklong trip, Albanese was set to meet business, tourism and sport representatives in Shanghai and Chengdu, including a CEO roundtable on Tuesday in Beijing, his office said.

He oversaw the signing of an agreement between Chinese online travel giant Trip.com and the government agency Tourism Australia aimed at attracting more Chinese tourists to the continent.

It is Albanese’s second visit to China since his center-left Labor Party government was first elected in 2022. The party was reelected in May with an increased majority.

Albanese has managed to persuade Beijing to remove a series of official and unofficial trade barriers introduced under the previous conservative government that cost Australian exporters more than 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.

Beijing severed communications with the previous administration over issues including Australia's calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of and responses to COVID-19. But Albanese wants to reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China, a free trade partner.

"My government very much values our relationship with China," Albanese said during his meeting with Chen. “We deal with each other in a calm and consistent manner, and we want to continue to pursue our national interests, and it is in our interest to have good relations with China.”

Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency, in an editorial Saturday, described China’s relationship with Australia as “steadily improving” and undergoing “fresh momentum.”

“There are no fundamental conflicts of interest between China and Australia,” the editorial stated. “By managing differences through mutual respect and focusing on shared interests, the two sides can achieve common prosperity and benefit.”