Prime Minister Albanese has met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met with China’s deputy leader on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Indonesia. It marks the highest-level meeting between the two countries this year.

Transcript

00:00 For quite some time there's been a lot of umming and ahhing in Canberra about whether

00:06 or not he should go to Beijing this year.

00:08 The reason?

00:09 Well, Australia has a pretty long list of grievances in the relationship.

00:14 Australians locked in jail in China, China's trade strikes on various exports, some of

00:19 which are still outstanding.

00:21 And the question was, should it be appropriate for the Prime Minister to go there, shake

00:26 hands with Xi Jinping in Beijing if many of these issues still haven't been resolved.

00:32 But today in meeting with China's Deputy Leader Li Teng, Anthony Albanese confirmed that he

00:37 thinks it is in Australia's best interests that he does go to Beijing for a visit later

00:43 this year.

00:44 I told Premier Li that we would continue to cooperate where we can, disagree where we

00:51 must and engage in our national interests.

00:54 I also confirmed at the invitation from President Xi that I would accept an invitation and will

01:02 visit China later this year at a mutually agreeable time.

01:09 The cooperation and engagement between our two countries is always improved when there

01:16 is dialogue, when there's discussion.

01:20 That's how you get mutual agreement, mutual respect and advance the interests of both

01:26 our nations.

01:28 And I thank President Xi for the invitation.

01:33 And what are the concerns that Mr Albanese raised?

01:36 Well, he pretty much raised all of the grievances according to his press conference.

01:41 He said that it's not just the two Australians who are locked in jail in Beijing on very

01:47 opaque national security allegations.

01:50 He raised their case, Chang Lei and Yang Hongjun, but he also raised the cases of three other

01:55 Australians who have been sentenced to death in China's justice system.

02:00 We only publicly know of one of them, Kam Gillespie, a former actor.

02:05 But today Anthony Albanese said Australia expressed its opposition to capital punishment.

02:10 He also said that he raised human rights concerns and more general concerns about China's actions

02:16 in the region, particularly around Taiwan and the South China Sea.

02:20 But more specifically to Australia, he said that he'll continue to push for Australian

02:26 exports of wine and lobsters and the other sectors that were targeted by China for bans

02:35 and tariffs a couple of years ago.

02:36 He will continue to push Beijing to allow those exports back into the Chinese market.

02:42 And Bill, what about from China's point of view?

02:44 What does China want from Australia?

02:49 We haven't yet seen the readout from the Chinese side, but Anthony Albanese said that China's

02:54 concerns or grievances are primarily economic.

02:57 He said that those concerns are well known and well canvassed.

03:01 And so it's quite likely he's referring to Australia's scrutiny of Chinese investment,

03:08 because in all previous meetings between Australian leaders and Chinese leaders or foreign ministers,

03:13 the Chinese side has publicly in the readout said that Australia should not use national

03:19 security as a pretext to restrict or block Chinese investment in Australia.

03:26 There is considerable concern about a couple of recent takeover attempts, including one

03:30 in mining, that was blocked by Australia on national interest grounds.

03:35 Going back further, China is still unhappy about Australia's ban on Huawei being plugged

03:40 into Australia's critical 5G infrastructure.

03:43 So it sounds very much, Gemma, like those were the concerns that the Chinese side raised

03:47 today.

03:48 A sound and steady China-Australia relationship serves the fundamental interests and common

03:58 aspirations of both peoples.

04:00 And Mr Prime Minister, you on many occasions stressed the importance of China-Australia

04:05 relations and said Australia is ready to carry out cooperation with China.

04:12 And Bill, where will Mr Albanese head to next?

04:14 He's getting on a plane and heading to Manila this evening, where he will meet the Philippines

04:22 President Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos, Jr.

04:25 It's not quite clear what they'll announce.

04:28 Mr Marcos has said that security will be one of the things they talk about.

04:32 The Philippines is pushing for Australia to conduct joint naval patrols in the disputed

04:37 South China Sea in a show of support, not for the Philippines' territorial claims, but

04:43 rather for international law, because the Philippines is very concerned about many recent

04:49 incidences of the Chinese Coast Guard using water cannon on its boats.

04:54 After the Philippines, Anthony Albanese will kick on to India for the G20 summit.

04:59 Another major gathering.

05:01 US President Joe Biden will be there, as will, of course, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra

05:05 Modi.

05:05 Mowdy.

05:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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