Chinese Premier Li Qiang's visit to Australia went well but new details reveal core issues need more work

Four days ago Anthony Albanese sat down with Premier Li Qiang in Canberra for one of his most consequential sets of official talks since becoming prime minister.

In a briefing on Thursday, for a cohort of Australia's friends and allies, the message was fairly clear: the meeting with the premier went fairly well, but the prime minister did not concede ground on any core issues. This has been a common refrain from China, and one which it has deployed against multiple countries both in official discourse and in state media, which often paints US allies as unwitting dupes being manipulated by the hidden hand of Washington.

Australian officials also stressed that Mr Albanese used the meeting to raise the government's concerns about China's conduct in the South China Sea, human rights in China, Australian citizens imprisoned in China, and Beijing's tacit support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine . But Australian officials assured their counterparts that was simply a reference to both countries revivifying existing mechanisms for discussion on Pacific issues, rather than setting up new official talks or channels of communication.And while both Anthony Albanese and Mr Li were quick to celebrate booming Australia-China trade ties during the visit, there are some friction points here as well.

This is not to say that Premier Li and Mr Albanese spent the entire meeting just talking at cross-purposes. They were also initially pressing for as many as 30 new agreements or memoranda of understanding to be signed — far more than the five which were, in the end, announced during the premier's visit.

Politicians, public servants and pundits with a stake in this troubled but critical relationship will likely be picking through the entrails of what happened for quite some time to come.

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