“I raised all these issues – talk of Chinese students not being safe in Australia, talk of Chinese tourists not being safe,” fears that had been circulated by Chinese state-owned media. She also raised reports that Chinese customs officers were waging a go-slow on imports of Australian wine and other products, she said. Mr Wang “was non-committal about it all,” Ms Bishop said. “He didn’t acknowledge that they were a deliberate government act. I gave these areas as examples where we need much clearer communication. I said there was no need for differences at the political level to affect these other areas. “He just listened and said ‘we will continue to work closely and lines of communication are always open’.” According to a statement by the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr Wang said to the Australian minister: “Due to the Australian side, China-Australia relations have encountered some difficulties recently, and the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have also been affected. This is not what China hopes to see.”

Taken together, the remarks of both ministers seem to confirm that the Chinese Communist Party was deliberately using commercial relations to exert political pressure on the Australian government. Mr Wang, according to his ministry’s website, said he wanted to emphasise that "if Australia sincerely hopes the relations between two countries return to the right track ... it must break away from traditional thinking, take off their coloured glasses and look at China's development from a positive angle, and provide more cooperation between two countries instead of recoiling." Loading The term “coloured glasses” has been long used by Chinese officials to refer to foreigners prejudiced towards China. Ms Bishop said she had raised the vexed matter of China’s continuing militarisation of disputed islands in the South China Sea. Australia has consistently criticised these moves as destabilising. Mr Wang had replied that China was acting in “self-defence,” she reported, the standard Chinese position.

Both sides reported that the meeting had ended positively. Mr Wang said he had “noted an improvement in tone from Ms Bishop and the Australian government,” according to Beijing’s version. And Ms Bishop said that “we finished on a very positive, upbeat note. He said he looked forward to seeing me in Beijing for the annual foreign and strategic dialogue – we put that in train, so it was all very positive,” suggesting that China’s apparent embargo on ministerial visits had now ceased. Loading Trade Minister Steve Ciobo had been allowed into China to preside at a demonstration AFL match on the weekend but was not allowed contact with national ministers. Ms Bishop said she had invited Mr Wang to visit Australia at any convenient time. The two countries’ leaders would meet at the various multilateral summits towards the end of the year.