Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met today with the senior Chinese leadership in Beijing, as part of his second official visit to the country since being elected in 2022.

The visit is an opportunity to continue advancing Australia’s economic and security interests, while stabilising the relationship with our largest trading partner China.

Direct engagement between Australia and China at the highest levels is central to a constructive relationship and enables differences to be addressed and opportunities to be maximised for Australia.

Well, thank you very much, Minister Wang, and to Premier Li, my friend, it is great to be here following up from the meeting that we had in Perth one year ago.

I want to also thank our co-chairs, Bran Black of the Business Council of Australia and Zhao Huan of the China Development Bank, for your leadership of what is a very important and distinguished group of businesspeople from our respective countries.

Thank you for bringing us together today and for sharing your valuable insights.

This roundtable is a symbol of co-operation – it is also a sign of ambition.

1. At the invitation of H.E. Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia, undertook an official visit to China from 12 to 18 July. Prime Minister Albanese visited Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, Sichuan.

XI JINPING, PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: Prime Minister Albanese, welcome to China again and congratulations again on your re-election. Over the past three years, you and I have met three times. During these meetings we had in-depth discussions on the strategic, overarching issues critical to the direction of China-Australia relations, and we reached many common understandings. With joint efforts from both sides, the China-Australia relationship has rose from the setback and turned around, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese and Australian peoples.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, and I’m joined today by Geraldine Slattery, the President of BHP in Australia; Kellie Parker, the Chief Executive of Rio Tinto; Dr Andrew Forrest, Executive Chairman of Fortescue; and Gerhard Veldsman, the CEO of Hancock Iron Ore.

It is such a pleasure to be with you in Shanghai today.

An event like this helps put not just a face on a profoundly important international relationship – but many.

I would like to thank all the hardworking staff of the Fairmont Peace Hotel – ably led by Australian general manager George Wee – for looking after us so well.

This hotel is an auspicious venue for Labor leaders. It was here in 1971, the year before he became Prime Minister, that Gough Whitlam marked his 55th birthday.

I’m pleased to be here for an important discussion between Australian iron ore miners and Chinese steelmakers. I appreciate you taking the time to join me today.

Australia and China’s iron ore and steel sector partnership has contributed to both countries’ economic development for decades. 

Australian miners are reliable and stable suppliers of iron ore, responsible for almost 60 per cent of China’s iron ore imports. That iron ore goes into Chinese steel production which accounts for over 50 per cent of global supply. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm absolutely delighted to be here in Shanghai this morning to launch, of course, the signing, firstly, of an agreement between Tourism Australia and Trip.com to encourage Chinese tourists to come to Australia. Today, we're also launching a new tourism campaign that you've seen with Aussie icon Ruby the Roo.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is focused on advancing Australia’s security and economic interests – with trade, tourism and Australian jobs a critical part of his visit to China.

That means driving greater and more diverse tourism cooperation between Australia and China – building on our strong people to people links.

China is Australia’s largest tourism market by expenditure, with a total spend of $9.2 billion in the 12 months up to March 2025.  

This represents around a quarter of all short-term international visitor expenditure in Australia for that period.

CHEN JINING, SECRETARY OF SHANGHAI MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA: Welcome to Shanghai.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much.

SECRETARY CHEN: Currently Shanghai is experiencing its rainy season, however this year’s rainy season seems to end a little bit early, the end of last month. So, you certainly claim some credit for the good weather, for bringing us a session. It is truly a great pleasure for me to meet with you, Honourable Prime Minister.