During his Australian visit, the Chinese Prime Minister focused on key minerals and clean energy

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Chinese Premier Li Qiang ends his Australian tour on Tuesday in the west coast city of Perth, where he will focus on China’s investments in critical minerals and clean energy.

Last week, Li became the first Chinese prime minister to visit New Zealand in seven years, followed by Australia. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to become the first prime minister to visit Malaysia since 2015.

Li, China’s second most powerful leader after President Xi Jinping, will inspect Fortescue’s clean energy research facility in Perth.

Fortescue CEO Andrew Forrest said Li was interested in the company’s plans to produce carbon-free iron ore and potentially “green iron.”

“I think China chose us because it’s not only the best green technology in Australia, it’s the best green technology in the world to go green and we have real examples of it in trains, ship engines and trucks,” he said Forrest for The The Associated Press.

The Perth plant is testing hydrogen, ammonia and battery energy technology for trains, ships, trucks and heavy mining equipment.

Li will also visit the Chinese-controlled Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia processing plant south of Perth to highlight China’s interest in investing in critical minerals. The plant produces lithium hydroxide intended for electric vehicle batteries.

Australia shares US concerns about China’s global dominance of key minerals and control over renewable energy supply chains.

Citing Australia’s national interests, Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently ordered five China-linked companies to divest their shares in rare earth mining company Northern Minerals.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote in an opinion piece published in Perth’s main newspaper, The West Australian, on Tuesday that his government was working to ensure foreign investment “continues to serve our national interests”.

“This includes reforming the foreign investment framework to make it more efficient, more transparent and more effective in managing risk,” Albanese wrote.

Forrest said the national risk associated with Chinese investments in the critical minerals sector is overstated.

“Australia should produce all the critical minerals in the world because we are a huge mining country, so let’s definitely go after the more critical minerals, but let’s not do it in a panic because there is no need to panic,” Forrest said.

Qiang and Albanese arrived in Perth on separate planes late Monday night from the capital, Canberra, where the two leaders held their official annual meeting with senior ministers at Parliament House.

Albanese revealed that his office had filed a complaint with the Chinese embassy over the behavior of two officials during a media event with both leaders after the meeting.

Albanese said Australia had “concerns” that two Chinese officials stood in the way of cameras taking photos of prominent Australian journalist Cheng Lei sitting with other reporters during the leaders’ speech.

Cheng spent more than three years in detention in China for violating the embargo by broadcasting on state television while she was in Beijing. She was made redundant last year after intervention by the Australian government and now works for Sky News Australia.

“Honestly, looking at the footage, it was quite a clumsy attempt by several people to stand between where the cameras were and where Cheng Lei was sitting,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“There should be no obstacles to Australian journalists doing their work, which we have made clear to the Chinese Embassy,” Albanese added.

China-born Cheng told Sky News on Monday that officials “made every effort to shield me from the cameras and flank me.”

– I just guess it’s to stop me from saying or doing something they think will look bad. But that in itself was frowned upon,” Cheng said.

The embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Li and Albanese made statements at the press event, but neither responded to questions from gathered reporters.

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