Liberal Party vows to adopt more ‘sensitive’ language on China

The Liberal Party has vowed to improve how it communicates with Chinese-Australians after a review of the Morrison government’s election defeat found its hawkish rhetoric on China cost votes with an increasingly powerful demographic.

The release of the election review came as Penny Wong returned from a rapid-fire visit to Beijing, the first by an Australian foreign minister in four years and the latest step in the Albanese government’s efforts to reduce tensions with China.

Asked where Australia’s relationship with China goes from here, Wong said in an interview with this masthead: “It’s got a lot of work to do. It’s good that lines of communication are open, and we keep taking this step-by-step to try and stabilise the relationship in both countries’ interests.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has returned to Australia after meeting Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing.Credit: AAP

Following Wong’s meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Chinese government agreed to restart regular dialogues on climate change, trade, defence and other policy areas. But it has not yet lifted sanctions on $20 billion worth of Australian goods or agreed to release detained Australians Cheng Lei or Yang Hengjun.

Shadow foreign affairs minister Simon Birmingham said the Coalition government had faced major challenges on China including foreign interference attempts and the rise of a more aggressive style of “wolf warrior diplomacy”.

“That required us to take strong positions while distinguishing between the actions of the government in Beijing and the Chinese-Australian community,” Birmingham said.

“The review has found more effort was clearly needed to draw that distinction. We will have to be very mindful of that in the future.”

The election review found the swing against the Liberal Party was significantly greater in electorates which have high concentrations of voters of Chinese ancestry.

In the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry the swing against the party on a two-party-preferred basis was 6.6 per cent compared to 3.7 per cent in other seats.

“There is a particular need for the Party’s representatives to be sensitive to the genuine concerns of the Chinese community and to ensure language used cannot be misinterpreted as insensitive,” the election review found.

Peter Dutton, seen here when he was Defence Minister on a trip to the US in 2021, was a strong China critic. Credit: AP

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton openly speculated about Australia entering a potential war with China over Taiwan while serving as defence minister.

Birmingham welcomed the resumption of more regular dialogue with China following Wong’s Beijing visit but added: “We all hold hope there is behind-the-scenes progress and movement in terms of the release of detainees and the removal of trade sanctions.

“It was disappointing there weren’t significant announcements in that regard from the third set of meetings between Minister Wong and Foreign Minister Wang. Australians want to see progress turning dialogue into substantial and tangible outcomes.”

Simon Birmingham was the last Coalition minister to visit Beijing in November 2019. Credit: Sanghee Liu

Birmingham said removing tariffs on Australian wine and barley will be most difficult, as they will require official government decisions while the restrictions on Australian lobster and coal could be lifted more quietly.

While Wong lobbied for the release of Yang and Cheng during her 100-minute meeting with Wang, nothing about the detained Australians was mentioned in the joint statement released late on Wednesday.

Yang’s friend Feng Chongyi said the release of Cheng and Yang was “the minimum concession” for the Chinese government to make.

“How can there be resumption of normal relations between Australia and China when Beijing is holding Australian hostages,” he said.

Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei have been detained by Chinese authorities for more than two years.Credit: SMH/The Age

Yang, a writer and pro-democracy advocate, was detained in January 2019 at Guangzhou airport as he arrived from New York trying to visit a sick family member.

Cheng, a Chinese-state TV journalist whose two young children are in Australia, was detained in August 2020 on vague national security charges.

Cheng’s partner Nick Coyle thanked the Australian government for their strong assistance and advocacy for the 47-year-old mum from Melbourne.

“This has been a long road, likely with some way to go, we knew that,” he said

“Clearly, China finding their way to a swift and compassionate resolution is in everyone’s interest, most importantly Lei and her two children who will spend their third Christmas apart very shortly.”

Coyle said any plans for Albanese to visit Beijing next year while Yang and Cheng remained behind bars was a decision for the Prime Minister.

“I am sure that both Australia and China would wish for any such visit to be focused on the positive aspects of the bilateral relationship, of which there are many,” he said. “Again, finding a swift and compassionate resolution would I think be in everyone’s best interest”.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.