Australia’s economic and diplomatic relations with China are in recovery mode, with tensions over issues ranging from foreign investment to security receding as Beijing tamps down its punitive efforts to bend one of its key commodity suppliers to its will.
In the strongest sign yet that years of frosty relations are warming again, more than a dozen companies including Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group headed to China this week — the first such trip since the pandemic. Trade Minister Don Farrell is expected to visit as soon as May.
It’s part of a broader shift by Beijing to improve relations with certain U.S. allies as Chinese President Xi Jinping looks to shore up the world’s second-biggest economy and resist efforts by Washington to isolate China on the global stage.