Wang – who addressed local business executives,higher education leaders and think tank directors at a lunch in Canberra on Wednesday – did not take questions from the Australian media. After meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday afternoon,Wang is expected to meet with former prime minister Paul Keating in Sydney on Thursday.
Representatives from Australia’s Uyghur,Tibetan and Hong Kong exile communities rallied outside Parliament House ahead of the Wong-Wang meeting to demand Australia emphasise the importance of human rights in China.
Industry Minister Ed Husic signed off on the dropping of an Australian anti-dumping action against imported Chinese wind turbines on Friday,a move first reported by the Chinese state-ownedGlobal Times as a “good gesture” ahead of Wang’s visit.
The government is confident Beijing will lift punishing tariffs on Australian wine exports by the end of the month,after China last week released an interim decision calling for the 200 per cent tariffs to be removed.
Wong said that Husic had made an “apolitical and evidence-based decision” on the wind turbines,adding that there was “no relationship between the wine dispute and the steel disputes”.
“I made the point that predictability in business and trade is in all our economic interests,” Wong said of her meeting with Wang.