Panda diplomacy is not enough

Anthony Albanese must do more than thank Chinese Premier Li Qiang for the pandas when they meet – New Zealand demonstrates how to. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s meeting with Mr Li on Thursday was as crucial to the Kiwis as the Premier’s visit is to Australia. The New Zealand-China free trade agreement dates from 2008 and the People’s Republic is fundamental to New Zealand exports of dairy, meat and timber. Negotiations now are starting on extending free trade to services. Yet Mr Luxon spoke up, raising human rights and foreign interference – issues, he said, “that are important to New Zealanders and which speak to our core values”.

Similarly, China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner and Mr Albanese must do the same, expanding on his diplomatic weasel words in announcing Mr Li’s visit: “We will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest.” All of which is easier expressed than accomplished when dealing with the government of a one-party state that only selectively sticks to international agreements, claims sovereignty over international waters and sky in the South China Sea, rattles sabres over Taiwan and weaponises trade. That Mr Li is visiting Adelaide, where he is expected to engage in panda diplomacy at the city’s zoo, is one side of China’s approach to Australia. Using tariffs to price wines from South Australia (and the rest of the country) out of the market is another. And in recent years there has been far more trade warfare than panda diplomacy. What was a wine ban in all but name was just one front in the attack on Australian trade from 2020-23.

Certainly there is a vast reservoir of approval for Australia in China. Chinese students have long been Australian universities’ biggest export market. But the message of the trade freeze must be top of the Prime Minister’s mind when he talks to Mr Li. What the Chinese Communist Party can allow, it will also forbid – if only to assert itself.

The excuse for trade bans was the Morrison government’s call for an independent inquiry into Covid-19’s origins. The excuse for a repeat of this or another attempt to intimidate an Australian government could be that Canberra protested against the treatment of Australian residents in Chinese courts, spoke up for human rights in Hong Kong or any other issue the CCP does not want raised. None of this must deter Mr Albanese. Mr Li may not like it but he needs to hear about core values – from Australia as well as New Zealand.