Australia to Host First Senior China Official Since Ties Frayed
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(Bloomberg) -- Australia is set to host its first visit by a senior Chinese official in six years, a sign that ties between the nations are warming despite Canberra signing up to the Aukus submarine deal.
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Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu will travel to Australia and Fiji this week for “a new round of consultation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Monday at his regular press briefing in Beijing. The visit was at the invitation of the Australian government, Wang added.
Ma will be the first high-level Chinese official to visit Australia since diplomatic ties between the two countries began to deteriorate in late 2017, when Australia introduced anti-foreign interference legislation that Beijing believed targeted the Asian nation.
Former Premier Li Keqiang visited Australia in 2017, while President Xi Jinping has not paid an official visit in almost a decade. Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres visited the Boao Forum in southern China last month, while a senior diplomat from Australia was in China for meetings this month.
See: China’s Australia Ambassador Says Threat of War Not ‘Realistic’
The relationship between the two countries worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Chinese government imposing trade sanctions on Australian exports in 2020 after then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an international investigation into the origins of the virus.
Diplomatic ties have rapidly improved with the election of the center-left Labor government last year. Even the announcement in March of Canberra’s plan to obtain US nuclear-powered submarines by the early 2030s has failed to derail the warming of diplomatic ties.
Australian ministers have met with their counterparts over the past year, and some previously restricted Australian exports are now returning to China, including coal shipments. Trade Minister Don Farrell is expected to make a trip to Beijing in the coming months.
Ma’s visit to Fiji will be the first by a Chinese official since the election of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, an influential Pacific leader who has moved to distance his nation from the Chinese government since coming into office.
--With assistance from Jing Li.
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