Australia FM will urge the release of people while in China

As she prepared to travel to Beijing for a historic visit as the top Australian diplomat in the nation in four years, Penny Wong, the foreign minister of Australia, said she would push for the release of two Australian nationals detained in China.

Canberra said on Tuesday that Wong would travel to Beijing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and meet with Wang Yi, the Chinese minister of foreign affairs, in a sign of warming relations between Australia and China.

An Australian foreign minister's most recent official trip to Beijing took place in 2018. Since that time, deterioration has been seen in the two nations' relations.

Wong promised that the situation with the two Australians who are now detained—journalist Cheng Lei and author Yang Jun—would be addressed before she left on Tuesday.

"I think that it would be beneficial not just for the individuals, which I think is essential in and of itself," she added. "I think that it would be beneficial to the relationship."

According to Wong, the release of the Australian citizens would remove a barrier to bettering bilateral ties. She did, however, limit hopes for an instant resolution to the "hard issues" of trade sanctions and the detainees with Beijing.

"Over the past 24 hours or more, there has been a lot of speculation about what will happen. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Wong said, "I will say this, the expectation should be that we will have a meeting, and that discussion itself is crucial to stabilizing the relationship" 

The visit will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and will feature a fresh round of the long-postponed China-Australia talks on international and strategic matters.

Chinese officials detained Australian journalists Cheng Lei and Yang Jun in August 2020 and January 2019, respectively.

Cheng, a mother of two and former anchor at Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, was formally arrested in February 2021 and charged with “supplying state secrets overseas”.

Australian of Chinese descent A number of spy novels and a well-known Chinese-language blog were written by Yang Jun, also known by the pen name Yang Hengjun. Beijing has charged him with espionage, and his trial has taken place in secret.

In announcing the visit, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, "Australia seeks a stable relationship with China; we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest."

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Monday said Beijing hoped Wong’s visit would “strengthen dialogue, expand cooperation and keep differences in check, while pushing bilateral relations back on track”.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner, and Australia still provides much of the ore, metal and minerals that drive China’s economic growth.