Bridging the China divide

The new Festival of Australia will help to repair the relationship with Beijing.

This week’s budget, like its predecessors for a decade, hinges on revenue expectations from China.

It follows useful steps taken by the government in the last few days to enhance that relationship.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has announced that the 40-event “Festival of Australia” to be held from May 20 in 10 of China’s biggest cities, focused on the commercial heartland.

This followed news that the role of the Australia China Council (ACC) will be enhanced as it morphs into the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the new outfit would “harness efforts of the private sector, peak bodies, NGOs, cultural organisations, state and federal agencies and the Chinese-Australian community to turbocharge our national effort in engaging China”.

Warwick Smith, the China-savvy chair of the ACC, will become its founding chairman.

Canberra also announced that the next ambassador to Beijing will be the experienced diplomat Graham Fletcher, who knows China better than anyone else in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with the possible exception of its Secretary Frances Adamson. A safe pair of hands for a difficult role.

The relationship with Beijing has become more challenging for many countries as Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping pursues a vigorous international version of the “pressing game” used in his favourite sport, soccer.

Some Australian business leaders have tended to act as echo-chambers for Chinese party-state expressions of alarm about the occasional criticism made of Beijing, helping nurse any resulting sense of grievance. They might consider taking a step back.

Instead, it is time to take greater note of those Australian businesspeople and others who live and work in China, and tend to grasp better the bigger picture. They will play a prominent part in the new Festival of Australia.

Birmingham told The Australian the festival would promote “Australian originality across the board, reinforcing the high calibre, quality lifestyle brand we have established for tourism”, which is attracting rising numbers of Chinese travellers.

He said the government was continuing to monitor the puzzling situation regarding delays to coal imports from Australia, which appear to test the free trade agreement between the countries.

He said: “As for any wide-ranging relationship, there will be occasional challenges. But we are determined to continue to put Australia’s front foot forward, and ensure that people-to-people links and cultural understanding between Australia and China are continually strengthened.”

The Trade Minister hopes to participate in the festival himself, depending on “the electoral gods”.

It is being organised by Austrade, with involvement from the Australian chambers of commerce in China and Hong Kong, DFAT, state governments, the AFL, Wine Australia, Meat & Livestock Australia, and Horticulture Innovation.

The events culminate in the third annual AFL match to be played in Shanghai, on June 2, between Port Adelaide, which has ploughed considerable effort into its Chinese initiative, and St Kilda.

The festival will aim to communicate with Chinese consumers, as well as to improve business networks — in Australia’s first major branding initiative since the Nation Brand project whose advisory board is chaired by Fortescue Metals chair Andrew Forrest.

The organisers intend to extend the festival’s reach through an online campaign that will feature Chinese opinion leaders.

It marks an evolution from the Australia Week that brought 1000 businesspeople to China in 2014 and 2016, but which required renovation.

Broadcaster David Koch, chair of Port Adelaide, said the festival was “an incredible vote of confidence for what Port Adelaide is doing in China. When we first played an official game in China in 2017, people were surprised even that was possible.”

Now the annual match is to anchor the Festival of Australia.

Koch said: “I couldn’t be prouder. I encourage all businesses with a focus on China, and all footy supporters, to be there. All roads lead to Shanghai. I can’t wait.”

The festival will coincide with celebrations for Victoria’s 40th anniversary of its sister-state relationship with Jiangsu province, including a gala dinner in Nanjing. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is likely to participate, and go on to attend the AFL fixture in Shanghai.

Backers of the initiative say that the broader the engagement with China, the less vulnerable it is to political pressure on both sides, with the economy a beneficiary.

The range of festival events include a showcase in Kunming involving film, photography and indigenous performance, a “breakfast of champions” consumer competition to be launched in Shanghai promoting breakfast products, an aged care education mission visiting three cities, the annual wine tasting roadshow, the launch of a campaign linking coffee with tourism, a Victorian “business of sport” delegation, the Australia-China Business Awards annual dinner to be held in Hong Kong, and an AFL gala dinner in Shanghai.

Andrew Hunter, the general manager for China engagement at Port Adelaide, said: “The bilateral relationship between Australia and China traversed a difficult period, but is once again gathering positive momentum.”

Hunter described the annual AFL match as “a bright star” in some awkward days, and identified the renewal of the relationship with the visit last May of the then Trade Minister Steve Ciobo to attend the game in Shanghai — the first time in eight months an Australian minister had been granted a visa.

The new model will help reposition the China relationship by promoting the best of Australia, which will surely win bipartisan support, however bitter the battle over the budget.