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‘End the war’: Wong’s plea to China in UN meeting

Penny Wong will travel to China this week to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi.

Penny Wong will travel to China this week to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi. Photo: AAP

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has lobbied her Chinese counterpart over detained Australians as well as urging restraint on Taiwan, in a rare meeting in New York.

Senator Wong, who met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the United Nations on Friday AEST, said Australia still had a “long road” ahead in its diplomatic relations with China – despite her second meeting with Mr Yi in a matter of weeks.

Senator Wong said she focused on China’s trade impositions against Australia. But she also discussed the detention of Australians in China.

“As I said to the minister, Australian interests are constant and the government will continue to speak of those issues we see as necessary,” she said in New York after the meeting.

“I did raise both Cheng Lei and Dr Yang [Hengjun] and a number of other consular cases.”

Cheng, an Australian journalist, spent nearly two years behind bars in China before a secret trial on espionage charges. Yang, a writer, has been held for even longer, also on spying charges.

The war in Ukraine was also on Friday’s agenda. Senator Wong urged China to uphold its commitment to the UN charter of human rights.

“We believe, as does every country with the exception of Russia, that Russia is in breach of the UN charter through its illegal invasion of Ukraine,” she said.

“We encourage China as a P5 member with a special responsibility to uphold the UN charger, that they uphold the UN charter to use its influence and end the war.”

Senator Wong said Australia would continue to engage with China in order to “stabilise the relationship”.

“That will require engagement and goodwill on both sides,” she said.

Senator Wong again clarified Australia’s position on Taiwan after the opposition supported stronger rhetoric from the US president.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said he supported “President [Joe] Biden’s posture towards Taiwan”, after the US leader said troops would defend the island in the face of an “unprecedented attack”.

The US and Australia have long maintained a strategy known as strategic ambiguity, where they avoid stating whether they would militarily intervene in the case of an invasion.

Mr Hastie said he believes Mr Biden’s comments were a change in posture.

“I think it is a change,” he told Sky News.

“They are standing up for an island democracy of 25 million people and it’s right and proper they should do that.

“We support the US, they are a close strategic partner.”

Mr Hastie said any review of the long-standing policy would be a matter for the government.

But Senator Wong reaffirmed Australia’s support for the status quo.

“We urge restraint. We urge de-escalation and we reiterate the bipartisan position Australia has taken since 1972,” she said.

“That includes economic engagement and people to people engagement with Taiwan.”

Australia, New Zealand, the US, Britain and Japan also met Pacific nations in New York as part of the Partners in the Blue Pacific group.

Senator Wong said the meeting was “a constructive conversation about how we could collaborate and partner in support of multilateralism”.

White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell raised concerns about Chinese ambitions in the region but said the group’s agenda would be guided by the Pacific nations.

“Clearly China has ambitions in the Pacific, some of which have caused concern among Pacific Island leaders,” he said.

“When we engage with Pacific Islanders one of the first things they say is … how climate change is an existential issue for them.”

– with AAP

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