China asks Australia for 'trust' as it struggles to shed tense relations

But, speaking in Canberra on Wednesday, China's highest representative in the country, Ambassador Xiao Qian, made it clear that officials want Australia to stay out of the issue of Taiwan, warning that "there is no room at all for us to show flexibility, or to make compromise" on the matter.

The Chinese Embassy opened its doors to Australian reporters for an almost two-hour long press conference to mark the new year, in which Ambassador Xiao tried to paint a picture of improving bilateral ties.

The event came as President Xi Jinping considers an invitation to meet with the Australian Prime Minister on our shores this year, following Mr Albanese's trip to Beijing in 2023.

"China is ready to strengthen dialogue and exchanges with Australia and other countries in the world, join hands to advance on the road of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and make unremitting efforts to achieve common prosperity and development and promote human progress," Ambassador Xiao said in his opening remarks.

He called on both countries to "refrain from politicising economic and trade issues and overstretching the concept of security", and said that China welcomed "Australia to play a more constructive role in the region".

The ambassador was grilled on ongoing issues like trade tariffs, Nauru's decision to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and tensions in the region; questions that saw officials providing winding answers, and appealing to notions of 'trust'.

Asked about reports that a Chinese warship subjected Australian naval divers to sonar pulses in international waters last November, Ambassador Xiao shifted suspicions onto a third ship from Japan, and said it was evidence that Australia and China needed to work harder at establishing "mutual trust and confidence".

"You have trust and friendship in many areas, but not... defence, this is not real trust," he said.

"... We used to have in past several decades mutual visits, joint military exercises, you know, all kinds of things. Visiting and training and exchange of students in our defence colleges, and these need to pick up again and resume again to help promote to reestablish mutual trust and confidence."

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On the matter of Taiwan, Ambassador Xiao denied that his country had bribed Nauru to break diplomatic ties from Taiwan just 48 hours after its election outcome.

He did reveal, though, that Chinese officials had complained to Australia over a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade congratulating Taiwan's president-elect Dr Lai Ching-Te on his victory.

Dr Lai led the Democratic Progressive Party - a party that has campaigned for Taiwan's independence - to a third successive term in government over the weekend.

The DFAT statement, published on Sunday, also congratulated "the people of Taiwan on their democratic rights" and said the elections were a "testament to the maturity and strength of Taiwan's democracy".

Ambassador Xiao described this as "an issue we are sensitive to in our bilateral relationships".

"We have made serious representations that we are strongly opposed to such a statement; a statement by a government on China's local provincial elections," he said, adding that he was seeking to speak with Australian officials in the coming days on the matter.

The ambassador was also asked to comment on the status of Dr Yang Hengjun, an Australian writer who was arrested and charged with espionage in January 2019.

Ambassador Xiao suggested that Dr Yang wouldn't be released in the way journalist Cheng Lei was last year, and rejected the seriousness of health concerns raised by the writer's family.

"To be honest, I cannot expect that the case would come to such a conclusion likewise," the ambassador told reporters.