Shanghai |Australian diplomats all but gave up putting in requests for official ministerial visits to China earlier this year.

Repeated requests to Beijing for formal invitations to ministers to visit China were never approved. Delays are not unusual given the logistics of finding compatible diary times for senior Chinese and Australian officials to sit down together. But this was something different.

Canberra did not want to be seen begging for an audience and there was a sense that if Australia kept knocking at the door China would use that to its advantage. Many believed the bilateral relationship was at its lowest point since 2009, as growing concern in Canberra about China's influence in Australia's affairs dominated debate about the bilateral relationship.

Reset anyone? Marise Payne and Wang Yi in New York this week. Fairfax Media

By April, there was early signs of a thaw. The nightmare scenario envisaged by Australian businesses in China of a backlash against their imports or operations failed to materialise. Treasury Wine Estates' complaint about customs delays and a warning by the Chinese embassy about the safety of its students in Australia were the main exceptions. Even the regular stories in the nationalistic Global Times newspaper pointing out incidents of racism or nasty insect bites in Australia became rare.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear this week Beijing was more open to dialogue with Australia than it was six months ago. The friendly tone of his comments after meeting his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in New York contrasts to the frosty statement issued following a meeting with Julie Bishop in May. Some China watchers were surprised at the cheerier tone, given the decision to ban Chinese telco Huawei from bidding for 5G mobile phone contracts and new tests for the relationship in the South Pacific.