Prime Minister Anthony Albanese carefully answered questions about his “constructive meeting” with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership in Beijing on July 15.
“My government’s approach to our relationship with China is patient, is calibrated, and is deliberate,” said Albanese, as he repeated his China mantra: “It is aimed at cooperating wherever we can, disagreeing where we must, but engaging in our national interest.”
The prime minister did not put too much emphasis on festering issues in the Canberra-Beijing relationship.
He first spoke of how dialogue with China is important for Australia’s interest, “given that 1 in 4 Australian jobs depends on trade, and given that China is overwhelmingly, by far the largest trading partner that Australia has.”
“President Xi and I agreed that dialogue must be at the centre of our relationship. We also discussed our economic relationship, which is critical to Australia. We spoke about the potential for new engagement in areas such as decarbonisation that was the subject of the forum that was held yesterday.”
National Security Questions Answered
The prime minister answered questions on the CCP’s naval circumnavigation of Australia earlier this year.
“President Xi Jinping said that China engaged in exercises just as Australia engages in exercises … [and] I said what I said at the time: it was within international law, there was no breach of international law by China, but that we were concerned about the notice and the ways that it happened, including the live fire exercises,” the prime minister said.
Asked about the CCP’s strategic or military plans for Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Xi views as a renegade province, Albanese answered that he reaffirmed Australia’s position of support for the status quo.
“We put forward Australia’s position or idea, which is that we want peace and security in the region, that that is in the interests of both Australia and in the interests of China,” he said.
Pressed about the fact that neither Xi nor Albanese raised the issue of Port of Darwin, which was leased to a Chinese company for 99 years, and where the prime minister recently said he wanted to return to Australian hands, the prime minister said he didn’t need to.
“I’ve had the same position for a decade.”
