Melbourne, Australia — Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia On Sunday he focused on the positive aspects of the bilateral relationship, including shared giant pandas and a rebound in the wine trade, while promising a new breeding pair of the rare bears and urging both countries to put aside their differences.
China’s most powerful leader after President Xi Jinping arrived on Saturday night in Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia, which has produced most of the Australian wine entering China since The crippling tariffs were lifted in March. That had effectively ended a trade of 1.2 billion Australian dollars ($790 million) a year since 2020.
Li visited Adelaide Zoo, which has been home to Chinese-born giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni since 2009, before having lunch at a restaurant at Adelaide’s Penfolds Magill Estate winery.
He announced that the zoo would be loaned two more pandas after the pair returned to China in November.
“China will soon provide another pair of pandas that are equally beautiful, lively, cute and younger to Adelaide Zoo, and cooperation on giant pandas between China and Australia will continue,” Li said in Mandarin, adding that staff would be invited from the zoo to attend. “pick a couple.”
Li was impressed by the 18-year-old Wang Wang’s appetite and indifference toward his high-ranking visitors.
“The panda is very obsessed with eating and doesn’t pay attention to us even when we are people from his hometown visiting,” Li said at the panda enclosure.
“He has completely treated his second hometown here,” Li said. “Very pretty, adorable, with a charming naivety.”
The pair are the only pandas in the southern hemisphere and failed to have offspring in Australia.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong thanked Li for ensuring the pandas remained the zoo’s star attraction.
“It’s good for the economy, it’s good for South Australian jobs, it’s good for tourism and it’s a sign of goodwill, and we appreciate that,” Mr Wong said.
Tom King, managing director of Penfolds, one of Australia’s oldest wineries, told Chinese state media before Li’s arrival that such visits helped strengthen economic and cultural ties.
“It is satisfying to see the stabilization of relations between the Australian and Chinese governments, including regular high-level visits between the two countries,” King was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper last week.
Li’s visit is the first to Australia by a Chinese prime minister in seven years and marks an improvement in relations since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor Party was elected in 2022.
Li noted that Albanese was the first Australian prime minister to visit China since 2016 in November.
“China-Australia relations returned to normal after a period of twists and turns, bringing tangible benefits to the people of both countries,” Li said, according to a translation released by the Chinese Embassy in Australia on Sunday.
“History has shown that mutual respect, seeking common ground regardless of differences and mutually beneficial cooperation are valuable experiences in the growth of China-Australia relations, and should be maintained and carried forward,” Li added. .
Dozens of pro-China protesters and human rights advocates gathered outside the zoo ahead of Li’s visit.
China began a restart of the relationship after the nine years in power of the previous Conservative administration ended.
Relations collapsed over legislation prohibiting covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei of the rollout of the national 5G network due to security concerns, and Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the causes and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beijing imposed a series of official and unofficial trade blocs in 2020 on a range of Australian exports, including coal, wine, beef, barley and timber, which cost up to A$20 billion ($13 billion) per year. anus.
All trade bans have been lifted except the Australian one. live lobster exports. Trade Minister Don Farrell predicted that the impediment would also be lifted shortly after Li’s visit to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
Wong said Li’s visit was the result of “two years of very deliberate and very patient work by this government to achieve a stabilization of the relationship and work to remove trade impediments.”
“We will cooperate where we can, disagree where necessary and engage in our national interest,” Wong told Australian Broadcasting Corp. before joining Li for lunch.
Li’s agenda will be more contentious when he leaves Adelaide to visit the national capital, Canberra, on Monday and a Chinese-controlled lithium processing plant in the resource-rich state of Western Australia on Tuesday.
Albanese has said he will speak to Li during an annual leaders’ meeting. recent clashes between the two countries’ militaries in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea which Australia says endanger Australian personnel.
Albanese will also raise the fate of Chinese-born Australian democracy blogger Yang Hengjun, to whom a Beijing court imposed a suspended death sentence in February. Australia is also concerned about dual citizenship between Hong Kong and Australia. Gordon Ngwho was among 14 pro-democracy activists convicted by a Hong Kong court last month of national security crimes.
Li’s visit to Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia’s processing plant south of Perth, Western Australia’s capital, will underline China’s interest in investing in critical minerals. The plant produces lithium hydroxide suitable for batteries for electric vehicles.
Australia shares the United States’ concerns about China’s dominance in critical minerals, which are Essential components in the global transition. to renewable energy sources.
Citing Australia’s national interests, Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently ordered five China-linked companies to divest their shares in rare earth mining company Northern Minerals.
Asked whether Chinese companies could invest in critical minerals processing in Australia, Wong responded that Australia’s foreign investment framework was “open to all”.
“We want to grow our critical minerals industry,” Wong said.
Australia is the second stop on Li’s tour after New Zealandand will end in Malaysia.
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AP video producer Caroline Chen and journalist Ken Moritsugu contributed from Beijing.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
