Chinese premier Li Qiang flies to Australia after New Zealand visit

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is due to arrive in Australia on Saturday on a relations-mending mission with panda diplomacy, rock lobsters and China's global dominance in the critical minerals sector high on the agenda.

China's most powerful politician after President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Adelaide Zoo and a Chinese-controlled lithium processing plant in the Kwinana Beach industrial estate, as well as Australia's Parliament House, during a visit that will end on Tuesday.

Li's visit is the first by a Chinese premier in seven years and is expected to pave the way for Xi's first journey to Australia since 2014.

China initiated a reset of the bilateral relationship after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's center-left Labor Party was elected in 2022. The relationship collapsed during the previous conservative administration's almost decade in power over legislation that banned covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese-owned telecommunications giant