New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns has said that his government was committed to building good relations with Beijing following a visit by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Foreign Minister Wang Yi on March 21.
The visit was the first by the CCP representative to Australia’s most populous state in seven years.
Despite being touted by local media as a “landmark” event, the meeting between the NSW premier and Mr. Wang was held behind closed doors, with little information disclosed to the public.
The Labor premier said it was a pleasure to welcome Mr. Wang to the NSW Parliament while expressing his desire to foster a strong relationship with the communist regime.
“China is NSW’s largest two-way goods trading partner, valued at $56.9 billion (US$37.3 billion) in 2022-23, an increase of 13.5 percent on the previous year,” he said on X.
“NSW is committed to fostering a productive and stable relationship with China.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Wang stated that NSW had always been at the “forefront” of Beijing-Australia exchanges and played a special role in the cooperation between the two countries, Chinese state-run media Xinhua reported.
The CCP minister also stated that his “most significant impression” during the visit to Australia was strong support for enhancing dialogue and cooperation between Beijing and Australia in various fields from politicians across the chambers, and the business community.
At the same time, Mr. Wang said he hoped NSW would continue its “pioneering role” in deepening the cooperation.
Mr. Wang has been received by federal and state MPs following an ongoing period of “normalisation.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said she welcomed Beijing’s progress toward removing trade sanctions on several Australian commodities while noting “frank” exchanges on issues, such as the death sentence imposed on Australian citizen Yang Hengjun.
Criticism of Wang’s Visit
Some China experts believe the visit was more of a show with little substance.“Australian government statements about it have been content-free, apart from expressing the government’s delight about having the visit and meetings as evidence of a ’stable' relationship,” he wrote.
“The public words of Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong have been carefully chosen to convey the impression that there have been stern words from her in private, but nothing that could cause a ripple of discomfort to Mr. Wang or his Beijing boss Xi Jinping.
“Modest public mentions of human rights, our ’shock' at the death penalty given to Australian citizen Yang Hengjun, and volatility in the nickel trade in her press conference are meant to convey the success of frank dialogue behind closed doors.”
