Australia and China are on speaking terms again

The break-up was slow and acrimonious. Australia first rankled China, its biggest trading partner, by passing laws to prevent meddling in its democracy, and by banning Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, from its 5g network in 2018. Then, in early 2020, as a mysterious coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan grew into a pandemic, the Australian government called for an inquiry into the origins of the disease. That was the last straw. China huffed that Australia was “poisoning bilateral relations”, curbed imports and stopped answering politicians’ calls.

In a climate-focused election in May, Australians kicked out the conservatives who had been in office for nearly a decade and voted in a new centre-left Labor government. Ever since, the ice has begun to thaw. Two senior Chinese ministers recently met their Australian counterparts, the first such high-level talks in more than two years. A new Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, says he wants to break down suspicion between the two sides. He insists that “there is every reason for China and Australia to be friends and partners, rather than adversaries or enemies”.