Community members hope prime minister's visit to China will get relations 'moving in the right direction'

Community members in China and Australia have welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to China over the weekend, and are hopeful his trip is getting "relations moving in the right direction". 

The prime minister's trip is the first time an Australian PM has set foot on Chinese soil in seven years.

He was pictured with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and other international leaders at Shanghai's glowing landmark, The Bund, before attending the welcoming banquet of the China International Import Expo.

On Sunday, Mr Albanese toured Australian booths at the expo and spoke about how economic collaboration fosters an understanding of "common interests and where there are differences".

However, all eyes are on Monday's big event — the official meeting between Mr Albanese and China's President Xi Jinping.

Wine exporter hopes tariffs scrapped  

Many wine exporters like Baron Hong have been excited about the PM's visit, and are closely watching Monday's meeting for news of Chinese tariffs on wines.

Chinese state media have largely reported positively on the visit, with some social media posts referring to the Prime Minister as "a friend come from afar".

In October, China announced it would start a five-month review into the tariffs on Australian wine and whether they should be lifted. 

While Mr Hong is not expecting any firm announcements after the leaders' meeting, he believes that changes in policies will come soon after this visit.

"We hope the tariff can go back to normal about 40 per cent, similar to tariffs on French wines, or even better come back to zero tariff," he said.

Mr Hong resides in China's Southern economic hub, Guangzhou, while his sister lives in Melbourne. They initiated their business exporting Australian wines to China in 2012.

He was forced to shift the business to focus on exporting wines, from other countries including in Europe, into China after tariffs on Australian wines shot up.

Mr Hong attended the expo and was at the luncheon. He said he was heartened by Mr Albanese's presence in Shanghai.

Seeing numerous Australian businesses at the event, Mr Hong expressed excitement and sensed optimism regarding Australian products re-entering the Chinese market.

While the expo was promising, Mr Hong said a return to the highs of the 2019 wine business with China look to be impossible, as the annual consumption of wine in China has declined over the past few years.

Face-to-face meetings 'long overdue'

Peter Arkell, former chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, has lived in the Chinese city for 20 years and witnessed the ups and downs in China-Australia relations.

Mr Arkell said he didn’t have any expectations for this historic visit, other than it provided the prime minister and Chinese leadership an opportunity to speak in person for the first time in years. 

"This is a long overdue chance for people to be able to get face-to-face and to have a serious conversation … to get stuff moving back in the right direction," Mr Arkell said.

The prime minister's visit will also boost the Chinese community's confidence, he added.

"For the last three years of COVID-19, we haven't had anybody coming to Shanghai," he said.

"With a regular flow of senior business people coming into China … all of a sudden Shanghai is going back to being a destination city again."

Mr Arkell described Australian media reporting casting doubt on China's economic development as "wrong" and said this visit will help reshape Australian business perceptions of China's economic prospects. 

"Having the PM and others passing through with him, it will help those of us on the ground enormously. For too long, we've been running into a pretty strong headwind," he said.

'Good news for many Chinese Australians'

Many Chinese people living Australia are also hopeful Mr Albanese's visit will yield other positive outcomes, like increases to the number of international flights.

Rena Gong was an international student who studied in Melbourne, went back to China for work, then recently returned to Adelaide to complete a master's degree.

"[The visit is] good news for many Chinese Australians. A lot of us come here to do business and many have a link to China. The better Australia-China relationship is, the better for us."

Immigrants from China, despite living here for years, still feel insecure when the relationship between China and Australia sours, she added.

Often people still have family members living in China, she said.

"I'm looking forward to things that may benefit everyone, like more convenient travelling.

"Adelaide used to have direct flights to China but not anymore. I would like to see a direct flight to my hometown Chongqing from Adelaide."

Concerns over human rights remain

While many in the community are optimistic about how this visit might lead to positive business outcomes, others remain concerned Australia's efforts to advocate on China's human rights record won't have an impact.

Lin Bin who has a PhD in politics, moved to Sydney from Hong Kong 20 years ago.

"There are people who're pressing the government to talk about human rights with China," Dr Bin said.

Dr Lin highlighted the situation of Australian citizen Gordon Ng, who has been charged with subversion under Hong Kong's National Security Law.

Hong Kong community members in Australia have been petitioning for his freedom but Dr Bin doesn't think that will be raised during the PM's visit.

Last week the sons of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has been jailed in Beijing for four years on espionage charges, wrote to Mr Albanese asking for a "second miracle" during his China visit.

"The PM is probably going to mention that but I don't know to what extent that will be discussed," he said.

Prior to his trip, Mr Albanese announced his plan to address human rights concerns pertaining to Australian citizens, especially raising that "Dr Yang's case needs to be resolved".

Their request comes after the release of journalist Cheng Lei, who returned to Australia in October more than three years after being arrested in China.