Security and trade top agenda as Australia’s Albanese visits China

Richard Maude, an Asia Society non-resident fellow and former Australian intelligence chief, said Albanese needed to expand the economic relationship with China but also, "get through the visit in a way that makes clear to Australia's close partners and to the Australian public that Australia is talking clearly and frankly to China about aspects of China's behaviour that concern us".

The Chinese Navy held live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand with no advance warning in February, and there have been tense encounters between Australian and Chinese military aircraft in the disputed South China Sea.

While Beijing is keen to move ties forward, its proposals for cooperation on artificial intelligence, for example, have already met with a cool response, said Maude, who wrote Australia's 2017 foreign policy white paper.

Australia's two-way trade with China was worth A$312 billion ($205 billion) last year, or a quarter of all Australian trade.