Tiny green shoots are beginning to appear in the Australia-China relationship. The Australian foreign minister’s meeting with her Chinese counterpart – the second in as many months – on the margins of the UN General Assembly session is the most recent.

The change from winter to spring is initially almost imperceptible, other than to a gardener’s trained eye. Last year, China’s deputy ambassador, Wang Xining, fronted a hostile National Press Club in Canberra. His tone was conciliatory, the audience’s was not. Beijing then appointed senior diplomat Xiao Qian, cross-posted from Jakarta, as its new ambassador to Australia.