Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping will today hold the first formal meeting between the two countries' leaders in six years.
During that time, a range of issues have caused relations between Beijing and Canberra to sour, despite optimism after a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" was signed in 2014.
The scheduled meeting, on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali, marks a significant thawing of relations between the two countries.
But when did they go frosty and what was behind the decline?
Huawei ban sparks tensions
Much of the fallout can be tracked back to when Australia banned Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei from its 5G wireless network in 2018.
The government cited national security concerns and said any company that was "likely subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law" was not able to do business in the country.
Huawei denied it posed a national security risk and said it has "securely delivered wireless technology in Australia for close to 15 years".
Things were looking grim then, but they only worsened in the following years.
2020 lowest point in relations
According to former ambassador Geoff Raby, Australia-China relations hit their nadir in 2020.
He blamed the decline on Australia joining the United States in resisting China's economic and political rise.
But other factors have played into it as well.
When in April of that year then-foreign minister Marise Payne used an interview on Insiders to announce Australia would push for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19, China responded economically.
China's ambassador to Australia warned of a potential backlash, suggesting there could be a popular boycott of Australian goods in China if Canberra continued to push for an investigation.
In the following months, China put up barriers to a number of significant Australian exports, and Australia responded by referring China to the World Trade Organization.
China applied prohibitive tariffs on imports from Australia, claiming Australian farmers were subsidised and had been selling the grain used to make alcoholic drinks for less that it cost to produce.
Also in 2020, China took the rare step of warning international students to be cautious about choosing to study in Australia due to the risk of racist abuse.
In July that year, Australia warned its citizens against travelling to China after it introduced a sweeping new national security law for Hong Kong.
At the time, the Chinese embassy in Canberra slammed Australia's actions as a "gross interference in China's internal affairs".
Australian journalist Cheng Lei was arrested in August and writer and democracy activist Yang Hengjun was formally charged after spending almost two years in custody.
The two remaining journalists working for Australian news organisations were then warned by the Australian embassy in Beijing to leave China.
Relations worsened after then-prime minister Scott Morrison asked China to apologise for a tweet posted by a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs showing a doctored image of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child.
It came after the publication of the Brereton report, which found Australian special forces had committed at least 39 unlawful killings in Afghanistan.
China refused to apologise, and said Australia should do some "soul searching".
2021 another tumultuous year
Trade tensions continued and concerns over Hong Kong and Taiwan intensified in 2021.
In a carbon-copy of the anti-competitive claims made against barley, China applied tariffs to imported Australian wine – wiping a further $1.26 billion from Australian trade.
In March, Beijing confirmed the tariffs, which were almost 220 per cent, would apply for five years, putting an end to what had been the wine industry's most lucrative market.
A number of Australian abattoirs selling beef and lamb were then blocked, with China claiming labelling and then COVID-19 concerns.
Unofficial bans followed on timber, cotton, lobsters and coal with the disruption mounting to billions of dollars of lost business.
The World Trade Organization is expected to issue a finding in the barley case late this year, while the wine appeal is expected about six months later.
April's cancellation of Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) agreement with Beijing by the federal government was another sign that things would likely continue to deteriorate.
Ministerial contact between the two countries appeared severed, and Australia also ditched its French submarine deal to join AUKUS, a nuclear-powered submarine agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States.
That was widely seen as an attempt to counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific, and led to Beijing attacking the UN nuclear watchdog.
It accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of publishing a "lopsided" report about Australia's plan to build nuclear submarines while ignoring widespread concerns about its ramifications for non-proliferation.
Liberal Senator Eric Abetz further agitated Beijing when he argued Australia should overturn its long-standing and bipartisan "One China" policy in October, 2021.
In December, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned Australia, the US, the UK and Canada would "pay a price for their wrong moves" over a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Australia, along with the US and other nations, said the treatment of Uyghurs — among other human rights issues — was part of the reason why their diplomats would not attend the Winter Olympics.
Is 2022 the year things improve?
At the start of this year, it might have seemed there was little chance of things turning around.
Australia declared it was "deeply disappointed" after Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, citing fears it could lead to a Chinese naval base in the South Pacific.
It was followed by an island-hopping tour by China's foreign minister as Beijing sought support for a sweeping deal with several nations that included security and policing.
That ended up failing, with the US stepping in and making a deal with 14 island states, vowing to strengthen ties amid growing concerns of China's role in the region.
In October this year, Canberra moved to shore up Australia's presence and influence in the Pacific by promising to lift development spending by a total of almost $1.4 billion during the next four years.
While these moves were designed to counter China's growing power in the Pacific, there were some shifts that indicated a willingness to reset relations.
The appointment of Xiao Qian as the new ambassador to Canberra was seen as an indication Beijing may be moving away from "Wolf Warrior diplomacy".
In a further sign of improving ties, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have had two face-to-face meetings this year, in which they have discussed trade.
And as Mr Albanese and Mr Xi prepare for their highly anticipated meeting, it seems the diplomatic freeze imposed by China in early 2020 now well and truly thawed.
It came after Mr Albanese earlier this month repeated his desire to formally sit down with Mr Xi at the G20, saying "dialogue is a good thing".
There might not be an immediate reconciliation, but things have turned a corner and the talks provide a chance for a new chapter in the often fraught relations between China and Australia.
