Chinese premier promises more pandas and urges Australia to put aside differences
Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia has focused on positive aspects of the bilateral relationship including shared giant pandas and a rebounding wine trade after he urged both countries to shelve their differences
MELBOURNE, Australia — Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday promised a new pair of giant pandas to a zoo and urged Australia to set aside its differences with Beijing at the outset of the first visit to the country by China's second-highest ranking leader in seven years.
China’s most powerful politician after President Xi Jinping arrived late Saturday in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia state, which has produced most of the Australian wine entering China since crippling tariffs were lifted in March that had effectively ended a 1.2 billion Australian dollar ($790 million) a year trade since 2020.
Li's trip has focused so far on the panda diplomacy, rebounding trade including wine and recovering diplomatic links after China initiated a reset of the relationship in 2022 that had all but collapsed during Australia's previous conservative administration’s nine years in power.
Relations tumbled over legislation that banned covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from rolling out the national 5G network due to security concerns, and Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the causes of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beijing imposed an array of official and unofficial trade blocks in 2020 on a range of Australian exports including coal, wine, beef, barley and wood that cost up to AU$20 billion ($13 billion) a year.
All the trade bans have now been lifted except for Australian live lobster exports. Trade
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