Sunday 20 November 2022 12:32 AM China is suddenly friendly towards Australia as seen in meeting between ... trends now
The momentous meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese leader Xi Jinping has caused intense speculation as to why China has suddenly changed its tune on Australia.
The meeting in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 summit was the first time leaders of both countries had a face-to-face meeting since 2016.
In the 32-minute discussion, first steps were made on repairing the relationship between the two nations after it severely deteriorated during the Covid-19 pandemic, costing Australia at least $20billion in trade exports.
The Chinese premier said during the meeting that the Australia-China relationship 'deserves to be cherished' because of its significance to the superpower in its relations with developed countries.
China put diplomatic relations into a deep freeze after then prime minister Scott Morrison pushed for an international inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets China's President Xi Jinping in a bilateral meeting during the 2022 G20 summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia
'You have made a number of remarks on China-Australia relations on a number of occasions, and have repeatedly said that you will deal with China-Australia relations in a mature manner,' Xi Jinping told Anthony Albanese in Bali. 'I attach great importance to your opinion'
Regarded as a provocative move by the Chinese, it prompted the superpower to release an extraordinary list of 14 grievances it had with Australia, ranging from 'racist attacks against Asian people' to siding with the United States in what it claims was an 'anti-China campaign'.
Of more concern were the bans and higher tariffs placed on a range of Australian exports to China, from coal to beef, cotton, wine, barley, timber and lobsters.
But Mr Xi's sudden agreement to meet Mr Albanese - after Foreign Minister Penny Wong had met with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi twice in recent months - suggests the superpower has pressing reasons to improve relations with Australia.
One reason is China's economy, which has been weakened by lower international demand for the goods produced by the 'factory of the world', energy supply issues and labour problems caused by its strict zero-Covid health policies.
Professor David Goodman, director of China Studies Centre at University of Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia that Australia's change in federal government earlier this year was the first 'circuit-breaker' for China's change of heart, but so is its love of Australian coal and need to maintain trade between the two nations.
'[Chinese] state-owned producers love our coal because it's high-quality coking and steelmaking coal,' Prof Goodman said.
'What's happening now is that the restrictions on Australian coal are being circumvented. Producers are going through third parties, other traders, which means the cost is higher, so of course they want to bring the cost down.
'And they don’t just take exports from us… they're imports to us are Australia's largest source of imports, by a long way, so you can understand they would want those to flow more easily.'
'What’s happening now is that the restrictions on Australian coal are being circumvented. Producers are going through third parties, other traders, which means the cost is higher, so of course they want to bring the cost down,' Professor David Goodman, director of China Studies Centre at University of Sydney, said of one of China's main motivations for improving relations with Australia
China also has issues in its domestic economy and wishes to be a consumer society but has no ready-made way of redistributing wealth in the country.
'It's tax system is rubbish,' Prof Goodman said.
Prof Goodman
