Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian has been pushing Australia to work together on artificial intelligence and investment in Australian critical industries. But Albanese’s focus is likely to be confined to tourism and trade in less contentious areas, such as China’s dominant green energy sector, during a two-day stop in Shanghai before a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the week.

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Chinese tourists have flocked back to Australia since the pandemic. However, expectations of the wealth of China’s expanding middle class are not as high as they once were.

Material wealth continues to rise, but China’s gross domestic product growth has declined from 8.5 per cent in 2021 to less than 5 per cent in 2025, according to economists surveyed by Reuters. Consumers are shifting their taste away from luxury brands, according to surveys, while unemployment among young people is more than 15 per cent.

In its reporting of Wong’s meeting with the Chinese foreign minister, the country’s state-run newswire service Xinhua reported that Wang had said China was willing to prepare the next stage of high-level meetings, improve bilateral ties and manage the countries’ differences.

“The Chinese foreign minister noted that Australia’s rational and pragmatic policy toward China serves the interests of both countries and aligns with the trend of the times,” Xinhua reported.

Wong also emphasised the importance of opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, weeks after media reports suggested that Yi had told European officials China could not accept a Russian loss because it would allow the US to shift focus towards the Indo-Pacific. She also raised peace in the Taiwan Strait.

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