Chinese diplomat Wang Xining in Q&A firing line

A senior Chinese diplomatic figure was subject to a grilling over coronavirus and Uighurs.

Wang Xining appears on Monday night's Q&A. Picture: ABC

Monday night’s Q&A saw a senior Chinese diplomat subjected to an unprecedented level of grilling over topics including detention camps and coronavirus.

Journalist and researcher Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, who reportedly had been told to stay away from China in the interests of her own safety, got stuck in to Chinese Minister and Deputy Head of Mission Wang Xining when he said “try to understand the Chinese perspective”.

“I have a Chinese perspective. I’m from China. I lived most of my life in China. I’m a Chinese person and speak Mandarin as well as you do,” Ms Xu said.

Several audience members were quick to say that relations between the Chinese and Australian governments were near rock bottom, which saw several burning issues unresolved.

The case of two Uighur men in Adelaide who are unable to reunite with their families came in for special attention over their family’s detention.

“There are over 1000 people who visited these training centres,” Mr Wang said, in an answer met with laughter from the audience.

“Most of them, many of them are from Muslim countries.”

Ex-Beijing journalist Louisa Lim tweeted: “Q&A audience is now laughing openly at Wang Xining, as he tries to explain Beijing’s internment camps in Xinjiang as ‘training camps’.”

“This might be the last time in a while we see a Chinese diplomat facing questioning in so public a format.”

#Qanda audience is now laughing openly at Wang Xining, as he tries to explain Beijing's internment camps in Xinjiang as 'training camps'. This might be the last time in a while we see a Chinese diplomat facing questioning in so public a format.

— Louisa Lim (@limlouisa) February 24, 2020

“Since I came to Canberra I find a small number of people in Australia who tried all out to preach xenophobia and give a misportrayal of China,” Mr Wang said.

“I think they are either politically motivated, (doing it) out of their selfish personal aspiration or they are supported by some foreign forces.”

The minister was asked on several points to clarify China’s position of the two men, with host Hamish Macdonald attempting to reel him back to the question to little effect.

“There’s a lot of fake news running around,” Mr Wang said.

I've never seen anything quite like this. A Chinese official on Australian national TV engaged in this sort of robust (but civil) debate with some very strong contrary views. Quite remarkable #qanda

— Nadia Daly (@nadiasdaly) February 24, 2020

The spread of coronavirus, as well as the spread of information, were debated with some on the panel seeing China’s responses to the viral pandemic as manifesting the inflexibilities of the Chinese political system.

The outbreak of coronavirus has seen students stranded and shipments halted as authorities struggle to contain the spread of the disease.

When asked if China had mishandled the crisis, Mr Wang was unwilling to accept any suggestion of a cover-up.

“I don’t think there is a cover-up. It is a very sophisticated issue. It involved a lot of agencies and expertise.

“Wuhan had been locked down overnight. More than 30,000 medical staff have been dispatched to Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province to help their colleagues. And the whole population were advised to stay home.

“It’s unprecedented and challenging in human history.”

What would be different about this epidemic if China was a democracy? #QandA pic.twitter.com/DMjK8Hcmk5

— ABC Q+A (@QandA) February 24, 2020

ABC’s chief Asia correspondent Stan Grant said China’s initial attempts to stifle the spread of information “goes to the heart of the problem in the system”.

“That is the system is not transparent and it does not allow the free flow of information,” he said.

“The country doesn’t trust its own people to allow the free flow of information, hence something like this can very quickly become an existential crisis for a country like China.”

In a reunion of old friends, Grant was brought face-to-face with Mr Wang.

“I go back a long way with Wang Xining, because he was in charge of me, effectively controlling the foreign media in Beijing. When we would do a story for CNN the Chinese did not want people to watch, the screen would go black. So information was blocked from people,” he said.

“People that we would interview would often disappear. Would be put under house arrest. Or detained. We were detained on numerous occasions. Sometimes and physically detained — violently and physically detained, intercepted.”

But Mr Wang said he didn’t agree that content was blocked nor that China was stifling freedom of speech.

“The government is trying best to protect that it doesn’t affect the social stability,” he said.

“I don’t think child pornography or pro-terrorist information would be allowed in Australia or anywhere in the world.”

The fiery show tackled politics and pandemics in equal measure, with Macdonald boasting it was the first appearance of a senior member of China’s diplomatic service on the program.

Tonight watch #QandA with Minister and Deputy Head of Mission Wang Xining, @StanGrantMOF, biosecurity professor Raina MacIntyre, @jasonyatsenli and @xu_xiuzhong. Tune-in at 9.35pm AEDT on @ABCTV and iview pic.twitter.com/kwVgqWdO7S

— ABC Q+A (@QandA) February 23, 2020

Australia’s reliance on China, our greatest trading partner, could be to our detriment as well as benefit, noted panellist and Vantage Asia Holdings chairman Jason Yat-sen Li.

“We are very economically reliant on China, as you know. If you look at our top three exports, iron ore, coal, international education. A lot of that goes up to China,” he said.

“You don’t want to have a concentration risk and put all your eggs in one basket. That’s just good management.”

But Mr Yat-sen Li wanted to stress that China was more complex than debates of good and bad.

“It’s super important that we have the mental space and we have the capacity to recognise that there’s also a flip side,” he said.

“There’s a good China. If all you focus on is bad China it blocks out the sun. It doesn’t allow anything positive to come from that.”

Mr Yat-sen Li said Australia needed to find the right areas where it could collaborate with China,

“I know there was a time when our government ran human rights programs together with the Chinese government on this issue of domestic violence,” he said.

“Build on the good stuff because I suspect if we double down on good China, it allows us to have the trust, the relationships to have the really hard robust discussions about bad China.”

Wrapping up the night, Grant said “the world has been waiting for that to happen for a very long time”.

“The idea always was as China becomes more wealthy they’ll become like us, they will liberalise,” he said.

“Under Xi Jinping, we’ve all seen doubling down on authoritarianism. We can’t just expect will become more like us if we find ways to communicate.

“We’re doing that and we’re seeing Xi Jinping reject outright ideas of liberalism and democracy.”