'We're in permanent contest': Australia flags concerns as visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang seeks to stabilise ties

Even as visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang appears to be seeking to stabilise relations after years of tensions, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said that the two countries were in a permanent contest.

In recent years, while the bilateral relationship has been tense over trade war and Chinese espionage and interference in Australian affairs, the two countries have also faced off in the Indo-Pacific region as China has been poaching countries in the region traditionally allied to Australia.

Flagging the tensions built up over the past decade and the mishandling of the previous government, Wong said “it was a reality” that the two countries were in a constant contest in the Indo-Pacific.

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“That is the reality. I wish there was a rewind button to recover the last 10 years but we don’t, we have to deal with what we have now which is a permanent contest in Pacific,” said Wong to ABC News.

On his part, Li has said that the “twists and turns” in the Australia-China relationship are over. Pitching Australia as the bridge between China and the broader Western world, he said that Australia was “uniquely positioned to connect the West and the East” and added that the bilateral relationship was “back on track after a period of twists and turns”.

“A more mature, stable and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership will be a treasure shared by the people of both countries,” said Li at the beginning of his four-day visit, the highest-level visit from China to Australia in seven years.

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Upon his arrival in Adelaide on Saturday, Li said that “mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences and mutually beneficial cooperation” were key to the Australia-China relationship.

Australia flags concerns from Indo-Pacific to Taiwan

In a statement that marked the complexities of the Australia-China relationship, Wong said that while her government was working patiently to stabilise the relationship with China, they were indeed in a permanent contest.

Wong dubbed Li’s visit “really important” and said it was the result of “two years of very deliberate, very patient work” by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government. She went on to say that her government was undoing the damage of the previous government’s policies.

“The reality is Mr Dutton and the Coalition abandoned the field in the Pacific and others have filled that space. We are now in a position where Australia is a partner of choice but the opportunity to be the only partner of choice has been lost by Mr Dutton and his colleagues and we are in a state of permanent contest in the Pacific,” said Wong in a reference to Peter Dutton of the Liberal Party.

The Liberals were in power for nine years until Wong and Albanese’s Labour Party defeated them in elections in 2022. The current government has been relatively softer in the approach to China.

“That is the reality. I wish there was a rewind button to recover the last 10 years but we don’t, we have to deal with what we have now which is a permanent contest in Pacific,” said Wong to ABC News.

Wong also flagged Australia’s concerns regarding the self-ruled island of Taiwan. She said her government remained “deeply concerned” about Chinese military activities regarding Taiwan. She called the China-Taiwan tensions as “one of the riskiest flashpoints in the world”.

“We are deeply concerned about the increased activities and the risk of miscalculation, the risk of mistake. And that is a view we’ve put publicly and we have put directly to China,” said Wong, adding that Australia preferred for the maintenance of the status quo.

“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo. In terms of the military activities and in and around the Taiwan Strait. You have heard me and others speak very clearly about this. We are deeply concerned about the increased activities and the risk of miscalculation, the risk of mistake. And that is a view we’ve put publicly and we have put directly to China,” said Wong.

Are Australia-China relations seeing a thaw?

The Australia-China relationship was at its lowest in 2020 when Beijing imposed a series of trade restrictions and tariffs on Chinese imports.

China is Australia’s largest trading party. It was the destination of Australia’s 30 per cent of exports last year, according to the Associated Press.

In 2020, Australian exports of coal, timber, barley, beef, and lobsters were battered by Chinese sanctions. This happened amid broader tensions in the relationship over China’s espionage and interference in Australia.

Australia’s exclusion of Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from the roll out of 5G network due to security concerns and the call for an independent investigation into origin of the Covid-19 pandemic also triggered China. Now, however, China has rolled back sanctions except on lobsters.