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.
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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]