Premier Li Keqiang warns against protectionism and new Cold War in Canberra

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has warned against trade protectionism as he spoke to Australian parliament members in the country's capital, Canberra.

In the meantime, Li has also emphasized that China doesn't want to see a new Cold War.

The Australian, the newspaper in which Premier Li published an editorial ahead of his visit, has reported, perhaps in a humorous tone, that the premier visits Australia with an eye on the beef market.

Premier Li mentioned the report at the start of a lunch address delivered at the Australian Parliament House on Thursday.

"So when I looked at the menu, I asked the people 'Is beef on the menu today?' and he said 'No, we have chicken for you." Li said.

Australian beef producers are seeking to take advantage of China's latest decision to suspend its beef imports from Brazil amid a massive meat scandal in the Latin American country.

But taking a more serious tone, Premier Li stressed beef and chicken are not the only thing he was looking for:"I come here for free trade."

China and Australia signed a wide-ranging free trade agreement in 2015, a move which solidified China's position as Australia's biggest trading partner.

Officials from the two sides have implied further trade liberalization measures under the agreement will be announced during Li's visit.

China's official figures show the country had around 50 billion US dollars of trade deficit with Australia last year.

Premier Li said expansion of free trade is the rightful solution to the imbalance:"In the world, protectionism is rising and there are more voices against economic globalization. We cannot deny that in the process of globalization, indeed, for some parts of the world, for some people, for some countries, there are some problems. But this is not the issue of globalization per se, it is not an issue of free trade, but it is all about how to respond to it."

Australia sold some 60 billion US dollars of agriculture-dominated goods to China in 2016, accounting for more than 30 percent of the country's entire exports.

Hosting his Chinese counterpart, Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said his country would be happy to see the volume further enlarged:"Now China must feed 20 per cent of the world's population but has only 7 per cent of the world's arable land. Its middle class is growing at a staggering rate and Australia is seizing the historic opportunity to provide the high quality, safe food and beverages, consumer goods, high-end services of every kind to meet China's needs in this century."

In the lunchtime address, Premier Li also noted China is pursuing a peaceful, independent foreign policy.

He suggested China didn't want to see countries which are not directly involved "take sides, as happened during the Cold War" in a clear reference to the South China Sea issue.

The comment came more than a week after Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop attacked China in a harshly-worded speech made in Singapore.

On Thursday, Premier Li Keqiang also met with the Australian Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove and opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten in Canberra.