Opinion | Australia should continue engaging with China on its own terms

Name: Leaders' meeting sees Australia and China call for increased dialogue and cooperation
Uploaded: 2025-07-18T12:30:08.000Z
Duration: 2 min 19 s
Description: Leaders' meeting sees Australia and China call for increased dialogue and cooperation

Albanese must convince more Australians to accept that Canberra’s alliance with the US is important but not the defining feature of its foreign policy

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre right) and his partner Jodie Haydon (centre left) arrive in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on July 16. Photo: EPA

Sohail Akhtar

Published: 8:30pm, 18 Jul 2025Updated: 10:03pm, 18 Jul 2025

The significance of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s six-day visit to China cannot be overstated. It was not only his first visit to China after his re-election, but also the fourth meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Bilateral ties had previously been marred by bitter trade disputes and mutual recriminations, which have improved since Albanese took office in 2022. While Albanese’s visit was a continuation of his efforts to strengthen ties with China and secure economic gains, it came amid growing geopolitical unease.

Both Beijing’s strategic posture in the Indo-Pacific and the policies of Donald Trump’s administration in the United States loomed large over the visit. Perhaps most pressing was the question of the Aukus pact review.

The Aukus agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is considered a central pillar of Australia’s long-term security architecture. However, doubts about the fate of the pact – under which the US was to sell Australia at least three nuclear-powered submarines – emerged after Trump’s election, given the views of members of his administration, such as Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defence for policy. Last month, it became clear that the Trump administration had launched a review of the agreement.

Potentially costing Australia up to US$368 billion, the pact was already facing domestic criticism due to its heavy price tag. There are now fears that the Trump administration may demand that Australia not only pay more for its nuclear-powered submarines but also guarantee support for the US in a potential conflict over Taiwan.

Australia is still committed to its one-China policy, and some believe that the Trump administration is not united behind Colby’s thinking. The British special adviser on Aukus, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, also dismissed fears over the Aukus review. Nevertheless, given the unpredictable nature of US foreign policy, Aukus is a thorny issue in the context of Australia-China relations.

02:19

Leaders' meeting sees Australia and China call for increased dialogue and cooperation

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