A look back to a different time in Australia-China relations

In his new book, Geoff Kitney recalls a time when Australian leaders, such as Doug Anthony and Bob Hawke, saw only great opportunity in China.

Bob Hawke, pictured here on an official trip to China in 1986, went on to visit the country over 100 times.

Geoff KitneyColumnist

Jul 30, 2020 – 11.21am

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We still called it Peking then and here we are, lining up to pay our respects to Mao Zedong. At the head of the line is then deputy prime minister Doug Anthony, with his wife, Margo. Behind them, standing in single file, are the captains of Australian industry – the CEOs of major companies like BHP, CRA and Dunlop, the heads of Australia’s major industry bodies, farm leaders, and behind them a gaggle of Australian journalists.

It is November 1978, and Mao has been dead for just over two years, but we can still see him, lying in a crystal coffin in the mausoleum built in Tiananmen Square, the famous, vast central square in the centre of the capital of communist China. Deng Xiaoping had replaced Mao as the most powerful figure in China and had embarked on what was to become a transformation of Chinese communism and the Chinese economy.