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SCMP Reporter

President Jiang Zemin arrived in Australia yesterday for the first visit by a Chinese head of state, amid warnings from Canberra against the use of force over Taiwan.

 He touched down in Melbourne accompanied by his wife, Wang Yeping, and an entourage of senior ministers and officials after a five-day visit to Thailand.

 The party was welcomed by Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Victorian state Governor-General Sir James Gobbo.

 The President made a brief statement upon arrival highlighting the prospects of economic co-operation between China and Australia.

 'As our two economies are highly complementary to each other, there are broad prospects for further expansion of the mutually beneficial bilateral economic and trade co-operation.'  Mr Jiang headed straight to a downtown hotel to prepare for three hectic days of meetings with Australian business and government representatives.

 Protesters campaigning against China's presence in Tibet chanted 'Jiang Zemin is not welcome', and 'Human rights now!' Police on horseback kept the protesters away from Mr Jiang's hotel.

 The visit has been billed as goodwill trip, with bilateral relations at their strongest point in years, and will focus on 'expanding relations and trade into the next century', diplomats said.

 But Taiwan will also be high on the agenda.

 The goodwill trip, nevertheless, began with a bumpy start.

 On Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned that China should not use force against Taiwan as any military attack would trigger a war between China and the United States.

 This earned a stiff rebuke yesterday from Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, who said that Australia should not make 'inappropriate remarks' on China's internal affairs.

 Aside from the Taiwan issue, the key focus of Mr Jiang's schedule today would be on bilateral business opportunities, analysts said.

 He will give a keynote address at a major trade and investment summit in Melbourne, which is expected to be attended by 200 Australian and 100 Chinese business leaders.

  Analysts predict a major announcement, which could focus on a multi-billion dollar contract for Beijing to buy liquid natural gas from Australia's North West Shelf to supply facilities in Shenzhen.

 The President will fly to Canberra late today for a state dinner at Government House hosted by Governor-General Sir William Deane.

 Tomorrow, he will hold talks in Canberra with Prime Minister John Howard and his cabinet before signing two memorandums of understanding.

 One of these will be on mining and energy and the other on law enforcement, focusing on people-smuggling rings which have sent boatloads of illegal Chinese immigrants to Australia.



Australia warns on force over Taiwan