His company, Shanghai Cred, is a partner with Gina Rinehart in the Kidman cattle empire, the third-largest producer of cattle in Australia.

The Turnbull government had portrayed Mr Ciobo's visit to Shanghai, where he gave a conciliatory speech to a business audience and met with the mayor of Shanghai, and also toured a food trade expo, as promoting Australian trade.

The official invitations from Beijing have started flowing again, however, after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's "unofficial" meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 in Argentina last week.

Mr Wang gave the green light for Ms Adamson to travel to Beijing on Tuesday, where she met with a vice minister for foreign affairs.