On January 22, Mr. Feng Wei, Vice Chairman of CIIDS, met with the Hon. Bruce Atkinson, Chief Strategic Advisor and Executive Director of the Australia-China Economic Industry Research Centre and former President of the Victorian Legislative Council of Australia, and his delegation. The two sides exchanged views on the development of China-Australia relations, practical think tank cooperation, the international landscape and other topics.

Feng   Wei extended a warm welcome to Mr. Atkinson. He elaborated on CIIDS’s development,   positioning and core functions, noting that as a distinctive new-type think   tank serving the country’s domestic and foreign strategies, CIIDS focuses on   building four core platforms: “Strategic Research, International Exchanges,   Global Communication and Innovation Empowerment”. The Understanding China   Conference, founded by CIIDS, brings together elites from global political,   strategic academic, business and media circles. Having been successfully held   for nine editions to date, it has become one of the most influential   platforms for the world to understand China’s development strategies.

Feng   Wei stated that China and Australia are highly economically complementary and   natural partners. Over the past few decades, the two countries have jointly   built a community of shared interests in multiple fields including economy   and trade, with both sides reaping fruitful results. Amid the complex and   volatile international landscape, deepening mutual understanding and   expanding converging interests remain the mainstream direction for the growth   of bilateral relations. He stressed that the two sides should work together   to build a community of shared interests featuring extensive consultation,   joint contribution and shared benefits, abandon differences, focus on   cooperation, and continue to advance practical collaboration in various   fields to greater depth and effectiveness. Feng Wei commended Mr. Atkinson   for his long-standing positive contributions to promoting China-Australia   bilateral relations and deepening economic and trade cooperation, and   expressed CIIDS’s readiness to further deepen cooperation with Mr. Atkinson   and the Australia-China Economic Industry Research Centre. On the basis of “Understanding   China, Understanding Australia”, the two sides can provide more high-quality   public goods for the two countries and the world at large.

Mr.   Atkinson thanked CIIDS for the warm reception and spoke highly of CIIDS’s   important contributions to telling China’s stories well, dissemating China’s   voice and enabling the world to “understand China”. He noted that Australia   and China have enormous potential for cooperation in areas such as climate   change, energy, electric vehicles and traditional Chinese medicine, and   looked forward to sustained and in-depth cooperation with CIIDS to jointly   explore cooperation opportunities.

The   two sides agreed to integrate elite resources from the political and business   communities of China and Australia, and explore the co-hosting of a   China-Australia thematic forum on the sidelines of the 2026 Understanding   China Conference. This will promote mutual understanding between the two   sides, jointly build a docking platform, and help deepen China-Australia   economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.

Shen   Yinyin, Deputy Secretary-General and Director of the International   Cooperation Department of CIIDS, and Pan Yuansheng, Senior Advisor of the   Australia-China Economic Industry Research Centre, attended the meeting.