Bloomberg News:

My question is about Australian trade. What has to happen for China to end the ban or the block on the importation of Australian coal, and for the removal of other impediments to exports from Australia to China? Thank you.

Wang Shouwen:

Thank you for your question. The economic and trade relationship between China and Australia, I should say, has a very good foundation. There is a free trade agreement between our two countries and in the past 12 years, China has been Australia's largest trading partner and Australia's largest export market and source of imports. In bilateral economic and trade relations, Australia has a surplus in goods trade and service trade. Meanwhile, China's investment in Australia is more than Australia's investment in China so it can be said that China-Australia commercial relationship has brought huge benefits to Australia.

Take last year as an example. Everyone knows that the world economy is in recession due to the pandemic and while Australia's global trade declined, its trade with China increased. Australia's global export dropped as much as 8% but its export to China was down by less than 3%. You can see that the China-Australia bilateral economic and trade relationship has brought benefits to Australia, and of course, it also brought benefits to China. We believe that this is a mutually beneficial and win-win relationship. This economic and trade relationship is worth attention and care from both sides.

However, it is very regrettable that some individuals in Australia have stigmatized bilateral economic and trade relations, investment projects, and some normal economic and trade cooperation, adopting some restrictive and even discriminatory measures which have damaged bilateral economic and trade cooperation. We always believe that a healthy and stable China-Australia relationship is very beneficial to economic and trade cooperation, and is of common interest for both sides. We hope that Australia can take more actions that are conducive to increasing trust and cooperation and that are more in line with the spirit of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. This in turn will promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral economic and trade relations. Thank you.