China eyes more exchange with Australian Labor Party: Xi

China is willing to strengthen exchange with the Australian Labor Party to jointly promote the newly-announced comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Australia, visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping said in Canberra on Monday. [Special coverage]

Xi declared here earlier in the day with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott their decision to lift bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

When meeting Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, Xi spoke highly of the party's contribution to developing bilateral relations between China and Australia.

Xi described the Labor Party as a trailblazer and active promoter of bilateral ties, recalling that the China-Australia diplomatic relations and their strategic partnership were both established when the Labor Party was in power.

Xi said he is confident that the Labor Party will continue upholding friendly policies toward China under Shorten's leadership.

For his part, Shorten hailed as a miracle China's development achievement, which lifted the country from poverty to prosperity and brought a closed and backward economy onto the track of becoming a global economic power.

The Labor Party, Shorten said, supports the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership, and hopes that bilateral cooperation can be brought to a higher level, with the construction of a bilateral free trade area taken as an opportunity.

Shorten also pledged his party's continued efforts in boosting relations between Australia and China.

Australia is the first leg of Xi's ongoing tour, which will also take him to New Zealand and Fiji. Prior to his state visit to Australia, the Chinese leader attended a Group of Twenty Summit in Brisbane.