China doesn’t need to threaten when Albanese’s already turning away from the US

China’s ambassador felt emboldened to publicly state that China and Australia are “friends not foes” because he knows Beijing is happy with our compliant PM, writes James Morrow.

China’s wolf warrior diplomats have stood down.

No longer do Beijing-backed social media accounts rattle their sabres.

And the days of Australian journalists being summoned to receive official lists of grievances such as one famously handed out in 2020 complaining about Covid inquiries and “unfriendly (and) antagonistic” reporting on China by local media are over.

And why not?

As far as Beijing is concerned, they have Australia – or, more specifically, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – precisely where they want us.

It was all hand-holding and smiles at last year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last year for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his favourite communist dictator, Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: Getty Images

Taking a near 180 degree opposite approach to his predecessor Scott Morrison, who to his great credit stood up for the American alliance and against the bully boy tactics of the Chinese Communist Party, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s approach is somewhat less robust.

Having won a thumping re-election after a campaign that saw him put as much distance as he could between himself and Donald Trump, Albanese has in recent weeks been doing his best to resist calls to up defence spending while also hoping not to be caught in the same room as the US president.

Anthony Albanese has been doing his best to resist calls to up defence spending. Picture: Pedro Pardo/AFP

At the same time, the prime minister has been making a pitch for his new “progressive patriotism”: A sort of thin, vibe-heavy and Labor-focused national identity built around dependence on government and independence from Washington.

And while the question of will he or won’t he meet Trump is Canberra’s favourite cocktail hour parlour game, Albanese shows no such reticence about meeting with Xi Jinping, with yet another trip to Beijing in the offing.

No wonder China’s ambassador to Canberra, Xiao Qian, felt emboldened to submit an op-ed to The Australian claiming that China and Australia were “friends, not foes.”

Don’t worry, he wrote, China’s massive defence expansion which includes massive shipbuilding and drone programs, is just a “normal military build-up”.

All that talk about Chinese aggression and expansionism are just part of a plot by Western nations to keep China down.

And, sounding like an undergrad trying to sound smart in his postcolonial perspectives survey class, Xiao said these nations, “seek to stifle the development and advancement of countries such as China, so they can continue plundering the world through hegemony while funnelling benefits to their backers.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is under pressure to choose sides, with Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian at the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards. Picture: Martin Ollman/ NewsWire

“This runs counter to fairness, justice and the prevailing trend of global development.”

All Australia needs to do, says China, is resist the temptation to follow NATO and accede to US demands that allies help carry the load, and everything will be sweet.

Yet we know that’s not the case, and Albanese will increasingly be put under pressure to choose sides in a contest which he still naively believes he can straddle by claiming we will “invest in our capability and invest in our relationships”.

This latest softly, softly intervention by Beijing into Australian politics can only be seen as a product of the perceived weakness created by Albanese’s confusion about foreign policy and who are our friends.

Originally published as China doesn’t need to threaten when Albanese’s already turning away from the US