Australia expects Jiang Zemin visit in 1998
Australia expects Jiang Zemin visit in 1998
By Jack Taylor
SYDNEY (AFP): Chinese President Jiang Zemin has accepted an invitation to visit Australia next year, capping Canberra's efforts to repair links which went close to breaking in 1996, reports said here Wednesday.
The Australian newspaper said the Chinese leader had accepted in principle an invitation from Australian Prime Minister John Howard and officials of both countries are actively negotiating both the timing and substance of the visit.
A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the report as "premature" adding: "He may end up coming, but we have got nothing hard and fast to say he is as yet."
The spokesman said Downer, while visiting Beijing last month, had renewed an invitation which Howard had made during a visit in March when he met the Chinese President. The response was "was warm and hopeful", he said.
A series of visits in both directions have already confirmed that China has forgiven the Howard government for a string of decisions that soured bilateral relations soon after it won the March 1996 general election.
Jiang, who holds all three of China's most senior positions, president, general-secretary of the Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, would be the first paramount leader to visit Australia.
However, two of his most senior colleagues, have visited in recent months: Vice Premier and economic tsar Zhu Rongji, then ranked fifth in Beijing's hierarchy, and Li Ruihuan, currently ranked fourth.
Australia's announcement of an enhanced security relationship with the United States was seen by Beijing as a threat to regional security which appeared to be confirmed by Canberra's support for a U.S. naval operation off Taiwan later in 1996.
China's official press even presented the reinvigorated U.S.- Australian defense links as part of a move to contain China. Other bugbears on a long list of vexed issues included Howard's decision to personally welcome Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a ministerial visit to Taiwan and the scrapping of a soft loans scheme which helped China.
However, Howard and his senior colleagues including Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Tim Fischer and Downer have since gone out of their way to assuage Chinese fears here and in visits to Beijing.
Australia's withdrawal of support for a U.N. resolution in April condemning China's human rights record won it hearty approval from Beijing while drawing condemnation from human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
A visit to Australia by Vice Premier Zhu the following month put the final seal of Chinese approval on Australia's efforts to repair the relationship.
It was followed by a six-day visit earlier this month by Li Ruihuan, a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference.
The official People's Daily pronounced Sino-Australian relations to be at their "best ever" in an editorial this month.