A Sustainable Economic Partnership for Australia and China

Australia and China retain massive economic complementarities in raw materials, energy and the goods and technologies that need to be sustained to achieve the global climate transition. This remains true even in the face of growing strategic competition between the United States and China that has escalated tensions between Australia’s closest security partner and its largest trading partner. Concerns over the security of critical assets have seen Australia become increasingly wary of Chinese investment in many sectors. China’s imposition of tariffs and other trade restrictions on Australian barley, beef, coal, cotton, lobster, wine and other exports crystallised concerns about the sovereign risk involved in doing business with China. In November 2023, during the first visit of an Australian Prime Minister to China since 2016, 1 Australian and Chinese leaders reiterated the i