The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, is to visit Beijing at the end of February in the first of a number of planned visits by Government Ministers to China aimed at improving relations between the two states.
This will be the first visit to China by an Irish foreign minister since September 1994, according to the Irish Ambassador to China, Mr Joe Hayes. It will be an important step in developing Ireland's bilateral relations with China, including economic and trade ties.
Relations reached a low point in April 1997 when China cancelled plans for a visit to Ireland by Mr Zhu Rongji, the architect of China's current reform programme. This was in retaliation for Ireland's co-sponsoring a resolution at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights criticising China's human rights record.
Mr Andrews will meet the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, who visited Ireland in October 1995, and other leading Chinese officials.
The visit takes place at a particularly interesting time between the 15th Party Congress and the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, said Mr Hayes.
The agenda is expected to include relations between China and the EU, China's bid for accession to the World Trade Organisation, the economic crisis in Asia, the second meeting of Asem (AsiaEurope Meeting) to be held in Britain in April, the situation in Tibet and human rights.
Both China and Ireland appear anxious to avoid a repetition of last year's breach in relations over human rights.
In November China resumed dialogue with the EU on human rights, and released a leading dissident, Mr Wei Jingsheng. This week Beijing announced that it had invited the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, to visit the country later this year to begin a constructive dialogue.
The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, and the Minister of State in the Department of Health responsible for children, Mr Frank Fahey, will visit China in the coming weeks. A group of High Court judges including Mr Justice McCracken will visit Beijing in April.
China has appointed a new ambassador to Ireland, Mr Zheng Jinjiong, to replace Madam Fan Huijuan.