Big test Australia still faces with China

After Anthony Albanese met with President Xi Jinping, it’s too early to know if his request tor better communication around future military exercises has fallen on deaf ears.

It’s easy to imagine President Xi Jinping lifting a wry eyebrow when Anthony Albanese raised concerns about the way China has conducted military exercises in the region.

To do so just as thousands of Australian Defence personnel are participating in the country’s biggest war game must have seemed a little ironic.

Though a flotilla of People’s Liberation Army navy warships suddenly circumnavigating Australia and conducting live fire exercises in the Tasman Sea is a far cry from the biannual Talisman Sabre exercise lead by the ADF and US, Mr Xi’s message was clear: both Australia and China conduct military exercises and both will continue to do so.

It’s too early to know if Mr Albanese’s request for better communication around future military exercises fell on deaf ears.

Anthony Albanese met with Xi Jinping and spoke about military exercises. Picture: NewsWire / Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer

That test will come the next time the PLA has an opportunity to do the safer thing by adequately notifying Australia of its activity in the region.

Mr Xi was never going to give such an undertaking in the room, but given Beijing has seemingly disregarded similar complaints from Australia’s allies like Japan, Korea and the Philippines about the PLA’s conduct, it’d be fair to predict little will change.

Equally as predictable, though perhaps more shocking, was Beijing’s official verballing of Mr Albanese on the issue of Taiwan.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping today in China. Source - PMO

While the PM reaffirmed Australia’s commitment to the “status quo” - that the island of democracy continue to self govern - the Chinese Government’s reporting of events suggested Mr Albanese had actually expressed “opposition” to Taiwanese independence.

The deliberate misinterpretation of Mr Albanese’s comments just as the US has sought further assurances from Australia was brazen, though again not surprising.

Perhaps the best consolation for Mr Albanese is that to even get lost in translation - deliberately or otherwise - shows the two sides are back on better speaking terms.

Originally published as Big test Australia still faces with China