Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will begin a six-day visit to China on Saturday, as Canberra hailed a return to free-flowing trade after a tense tariff dispute came to an end last year.
Beijing and Canberra have navigated turbulent ties in past years, butting heads on a range of issues spanning technology, trade and geopolitics, but they have turned a new leaf under Albanese.
China lifted a ban on Australian rock lobster in December — the last barrier in a broader, multibillion-dollar trade war that erupted under a previous conservative government in Canberra.
Albanese’s office hailed a return to free-flowing trade and said on Tuesday that the Labor Party leader would hold a meeting with Premier Li Qiang to broach global politics, trade and tourism during his visit.
He will also see President Xi Jinping, it said.
“China remains Australia’s largest trading partner, accounting for almost one third of our total trade, and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” the prime minister said.
“Trade is now flowing freely, to the benefit of both countries and to people and businesses on both sides.”
Beijing said on Tuesday that “under the guidance of the two countries’ leaders and joint efforts by both sides, China-Australia relations have continuously improved and developed”.
Relations between the countries were rocked in 2017 by reports of Chinese electoral interference in Australia.
The following year, Canberra banned Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G network due to national security considerations — a move that riled Beijing.
And though disruptions to the trading relationship have since been smoothed over, worries remain about the use of Chinese technology in the country.
In February, Australia announced a ban on Chinese artificial intelligence-powered chatbot DeepSeek from all government devices, citing privacy and malware risks.
Beijing slammed the move as “politicisation of economic, trade and technological issues”.
Albanese’s visit will see him “continue to patiently and deliberately work towards a stable relationship with China, with dialogue at its core,” the Australian leader said.
“My Government will continue to cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in our national interest,” he added.
The trip also comes as several Australian allies and partners contest Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims including in the South China Sea.
In February, Canberra accused a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares near an Australian air force plane patrolling the South China Sea.
China said at the time that the Australian plane had “deliberately intruded into the airspace around China’s Xisha Islands”, using Beijing’s name for the Paracel Islands.
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