Anthony Albanese soon will be the first Australian prime minister in 7 years to visit China

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Anthony Albanese will become the first Australian prime minister in seven years to visit China in recognition that bilateral relations have improved after crashing to unprecedented depths over trade and security differences that remain largely unresolved.

The election of Albanese’s center-left government last year after nine years of conservative rule created an opportunity for a reset. His three-day visit that starts Saturday will take him to Shanghai then Beijing, though details about his itinerary are limited.

Since 2016, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping met an Australian prime minister twice in six months, China severed top-level ministerial contacts. Official and unofficial trade sanctions stacked up since 2020 to cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year for commodities including coal, wine, beef, barley and lobsters as business and politics entwined in the relationship as never before.

But many say the trade boycott was hurting an economically troubled China while Australia was showing no signs of bending to Beijing’s coercion.

“It’s in Australia’s interest to have good relations with China,” Albanese told reporters last month when he announced the trip.

But Albanese’s government is also deepening security ties with the United States, notably with the AUKUS agreement involving Britain that will provide Australia with a fleet of submarine powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University of China, said the Chinese wanted to improve trade relations after a “largely ineffective de facto boycott.”

But Shi noted that not all the trade barriers had been lifted, although Australia is confident that crippling tariffs on wine will be...