Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) yesterday 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.
The country’s most powerful politician after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) arrived late on Saturday in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, which has produced most of the wine entering China since crippling tariffs were lifted in March that had effectively ended a A$1.2 billion (US$793.1 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.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Relations tumbled over legislation that banned covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) 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 A$20 billion a year.
All the trade bans have been lifted except for Australian live lobster exports, which Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell predicted would also be lifted soon after Li’s visit.
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) said Li’s visit was the result of “two years of very deliberate, very patient work by this government to bring about a stabilization of the relationship and to work towards the removal of trade impediments.”
“We will cooperate where we can, we will disagree where we must and we will engage in our national interest,” Wong said before joining Li at Adelaide Zoo, which has been home to China-born giant pandas Wang Wang (網網) and Fu Ni (福妮) since 2009.
Li announced that the zoo would be loaned another two pandas after the pair are due to return to China in November.
“China will soon provide another pair of pandas that are equally beautiful, lively, cute and younger than the Adelaide Zoo, and continue the cooperation on giant pandas between China and Australia,” Li said, adding that zoo staff would be invited to “pick a pair.”
Wong thanked Li for ensuring that pandas would remain the zoo’s star attraction.
“It’s good for the economy, it’s good for South Australian jobs, it’s good for tourism, and it is a signal of goodwill, and we thank you,” she said.
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