Powderfinger and a banquet lunch: China finds Albo a cheap date
All China’s Xi Jinping had to do was put on a couple of banquets and bring in a cover band to play some old Aussie songs and all of a sudden we’re good buddies with Beijing, writes James Morrow.
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How cheap a date is Anthony Albanese?
All China’s supreme leader and “chairman of everything” Xi Jinping had to do was put on a couple of banquets and bring in a cover band to play some old Aussie songs and all of a sudden we’re good buddies with Beijing.
It is hard to know what is worse: What the Prime Minister is saying behind closed doors or what he is doing in front of the cameras.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister and his fiancée Jodie Haydon looked like a couple of tourists who’d just been dropped off at the Great Wall by the Contiki bus: Albanese certainly cut a statesmanlike figure in a polo shirt and bunnies ball cap.
The PM also gushed to the press over how, at a luncheon for him and Jodie, they arranged for a band to play some Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil and Powderfinger (“the full kit and caboodle!” he cried).
This was, we were assured, “a sign of respect to Australia, to our country.”
It is unsure whether the Prime Minister ever considered the alternate possibility, i.e., that this six-day tour — timed to coincide with Australia’s hosting of the annual Talisman Sabre military exercises, and to occur before even the new parliament has had a chance to sit — has been arranged as a carefully choreographed exercise in flattery.
Suffice it to say that it is remarkable that a man who has spent decades swimming with the sharks of NSW and federal Labor could be gulled so easily.
Yet here we are.
It is clear that Albanese wants closer relations with China, and for this new era of friendship to be one of stability, calm, and prosperity.
Xi seems to want something similar, but with a different endgame.
He wants to point to Australia as a well behaved middle power that demonstrates independence from the US while at the same time not criticising Beijing and all the trade that flows from good relations with the Chinese Communist Party.
And here Albanese believes we can “disagree where we must” China has different ideas.
Xi sent his chief head kicker in to make sure the message was sent that Albanese’s (and the Coalition’s) plan to take back the lease over the Port of Darwin from a Chinese company was not on.
Albanese has also done his best to make excuses for China’s aggressive behaviour, calling their spy ship missions and live fire exercises just the sort of thing that happen consistent with “international law”.
And as to speaking up about everything from human rights to Chinese interference in Australian domestic affairs, that seems to be off the table, too.
A series of Memorandums of Understanding have been signed on issues ranging from tourism to agriculture but the contents thus far do not seem have been released (this column has queried the Prime Minister’s Office).
One journalist in the travelling press pack asked the PM what was in them and was treated to an ad for Trip.com by way of an answer.
“Increasingly Chinese tourists spend more than tourists from other destinations, and Trip.com in particular, specialises in the high value market, particularly independent market, a lot of their bookings are online,” he said.
Next week parliament resumes. What’s left of the opposition will surely be less in a mood to be diplomatic.
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Originally published as Powderfinger and a banquet lunch: China finds Albo a cheap date