MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia The president’s address on Sunday focused on the positive aspects of bilateral ties, including the sharing of giant pandas and the restoration of wine trade, promised a new breeding pair of rare pandas and urged the two countries to put their differences aside.
Xi, China’s most powerful leader after President Xi Jinping, arrived late on Saturday in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, which has produced most of the Australian wine imported to China since 2010. Crucial tariffs were lifted in March. This effectively ends A$1.2 billion (US$790 million) of trading in the year since 2020.
Lee visited the Adelaide Zoo, home to China-born giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009, before having lunch at the restaurant at Adelaide winery Penfolds McGill Estate.
He announced that two more pandas will be loaned to the zoo after the two pandas return to China in November.
“China will soon provide another pair of equally beautiful, vigorous, adorable and young pandas to Adelaide Zoo, continuing Sino-Australian giant panda cooperation,” Li said in Mandarin, adding that he would encourage zoo staff to “select a pair”.
Li was impressed by the 18-year-old male, Wang Wang’s appetite and disinterest in the dignitary visitors.
“The pandas are so focused on eating that they don’t pay any attention to us, even though we are people from their homeland,” Li said at the panda enclosure.
“It really feels like a second home,” Lee says. “It’s so cute, lovely, and has such rustic charm.”
The pair are the only pandas in the Southern Hemisphere and have been unable to produce offspring in Australia.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed her gratitude to Prime Minister Lee for ensuring that the pandas would remain the zoo’s centrepiece.
“This is good for the economy, this is good for jobs in South Australia, this is good for tourism, it’s a show of goodwill and we appreciate it,” Mr Wong said.
Tom King, managing director of Penfolds, one of Australia’s oldest wineries, told Chinese state media ahead of Li’s arrival that such a visit would help strengthen economic and cultural ties.
“I am pleased to see stabilising relations between the Australian and Chinese governments, including regular high-level visits between our two countries,” King was quoted as telling the Global Times last week.
Li’s visit to Australia is the first by a Chinese premier in seven years and marks an improvement in relations between the two countries since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor party was elected in 2022.
Li noted that Albanese was the first Australian prime minister to visit China since 2016, in November.
“After many twists and turns, China-Australia relations have gotten back on track, bringing tangible benefits to our two peoples,” Li said, according to a translation released on Sunday by the Chinese embassy in Australia.
“History has proven that mutual respect, setting aside differences to seek common ground and mutually beneficial cooperation are valuable experiences in the development of China-Australia relations, which must be maintained and promoted,” Li added.
Ahead of Li’s visit, hundreds of pro-China protesters, human rights activists and democracy activists gathered outside the zoo.
Among the protesters was Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong lawmaker who fled to Australia three years ago to avoid criminal punishment for his activism. He said the panda offering was a cynical move to soften China’s image and deflect attention from the government’s human rights abuses.
“This is a public relations stunt by the Chinese government and unfortunately the Australian government is responding to it by welcoming him and shaking his hand,” Mr Hui said.
Hui said Li had acted cowardly by entering the zoo through the back door while most of the protesters and China supporters were gathered at the front entrance, but Hui and other protesters were able to shout slogans at Li from a distance inside the zoo.
China has initiated a relationship reset After the previous Conservative government’s nine years in power came to an end.
Relations between the two countries have collapsed over a bill that would ban covert foreign interference in Australian politics. Banning Chinese telecom giant Huawei These include Australia banning the rollout of a nationwide 5G network over security concerns, and Australia calling for an independent investigation into the causes and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, China imposed a series of formal and informal trade blocks on a wide range of Australian exports, including coal, wine, beef, barley and timber, worth A$20 billion (US$13 billion) a year.
All trade bans have been lifted except for Australia. Raw lobster Exports. Trade Minister Don Farrell said: The obstacles will be removed This came shortly after Premier Li Keqiang met with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
Wong said Lee’s visit was the result of “two years of very careful and patient efforts by the government to stabilise relations between the two countries and remove trade barriers”.
“We will cooperate where we can, disagree where we need to and work in the national interest,” Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ahead of lunch with Lee.
Li’s agenda became even more contentious as he left Adelaide late on Sunday for meetings in the capital Canberra on Monday and at a China-controlled lithium processing plant in the resource-rich state of Western Australia on Tuesday.
Albanese said he would discuss the matter with Li at the annual leaders’ summit. Recent conflicts Australia claims clashes between the two countries’ militaries in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea have put Australian personnel at risk.
Mr Albanese will also address the fate of a China-born Australian democracy blogger Yang Hengjun, He received a suspended death sentence from a Beijing court in February. Australia is also concerned about dual Hong Kong-Australian nationals. Gordon Ngwas one of 14 pro-democracy activists convicted of national security offences by a Hong Kong court last month.
Li’s visit to Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia’s processing plant south of the Western Australian capital Perth will underscore China’s interest in investing in critical minerals. The plant produces battery-grade lithium hydroxide for electric vehicles.
Australia shares US concerns about China’s dominance in critical mineral resources. An essential part of a global transition Towards renewable energy sources.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently ordered five Chinese companies to sell their shares in rare earths miner Northern Minerals, citing Australia’s national interest.
Asked whether Chinese companies could invest in critical minerals processing in Australia, Wong said Australia’s foreign investment framework was “open to all”.
“We want to grow the critical minerals industry,” Wong said.
Australia is the second stop on Lee’s tour. new zealandending in Malaysia.
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AP video producer Caroline Chen and journalist Ken Moritsugu contributed from Beijing.
