China tells other world leaders: be like Australia’s Anthony Albanese

Beijing has nominated Anthony Albanese as the leader other American allies should emulate, ahead of a meeting between the PM and Xi Jinping in Peru.

Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in November 2023. The two leaders will soon meet in Peru. Picture: Lukas Coch/ AAP

Beijing has nominated Anthony Albanese as the leader other American allies should emulate ahead of a meeting between the Australian Prime Minister and China’s President Xi Jinping in South America.

In an editorial published on the eve of meetings of APEC and G20 leaders in Peru and Brazil, the China Daily praised the Australians PM’s “strategic autonomy” amid “unprecedented geopolitical complexity and uncertainty” after the election of Donald Trump.

The party-state masthead, Beijing’s most authoritative English language masthead, offered the Australian Prime Minister as an exemplar for other American allies as they engage in the difficult “balancing act” between their security partner in Washington and their economic relationship with China.

The party-state controlled masthead said hawkish picks in Trump’s cabinet would make this balance “not an easy one”, and suggested leaders could learn from Albanese who has talked up Australia’s trade relationship with China ahead of the summits.

“Australia, however, might offer some useful reference for those struggling to strike such a balance,” the China Daily editorialised.

“Australia’s ties with China deteriorated when the previous Australian government fell under Washington’s anti-China spell,” the masthead continued.

“But Canberra has woken up to the significance of those ties under the Albanese government and set out repairing them. The strategic autonomy the Albanese government has displayed has proved that those ties are in both parties’ interests. It is also evident that economic ties with China and the US do not have to be mutually exclusive.”

President Xi receives military honours next to Peru's President Dina Boluarte upon his arrival at the government palace in Lima. Picture: Ernesto Benavides / AFP

The tone setting comments from the leading Chinese masthead before the Prime Minister’s meeting with Xi suggests Beijing thinks Canberra might help it argue against Trump’s threat to impose 60 per cent tariffs on China, which is by far Australia’s biggest export market. The RBA and other economists believe, if imposed, Trump’s tariffs would slow growth in countries such as Australia with big economic relationships with China.

Trump’s nomination of uber China hawks Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and Mike Waltz as national security adviser, along with reports that Robert Lighthizer will reprise his role as tariff tsar, has Beijing braced for a turbulent four years.

However, many in China also see opportunity in Trump’s eccentric approach. Chinese media are gloating over Trump’s controversial pick of Tulsi Gabbard to be his director of national intelligence.

Nationalist masthead Guancha called the appointment a “God-level prank”, noting Gabbard, a former Democrat, now Republican, has long campaigned against the intelligence agencies she would be in-charge of if her nomination is passed by the senate. Her role would also involve liaising with America’s Five Eyes intelligence partners, including Australia.

When she ran as a Democratic candidate in 2020, Gabbard criticised the Trump administration’s trade war and argued Washington should pursue a more cooperative relationship with Beijing to better address climate change. In recent years, she became a Trump favourite for claiming the American intelligence establishment was trying to bring down the former president with the “Russia hoax” and for campaigning against her old party.

President-elect Donald Trump with Tulsi Gabbard, whose nomination as director of national intelligence has been called a ‘god-level prank’ in China Picture: Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP

Guancha reported that some Western intelligence officials believe her appointment might lead some allies and partners “to reduce the amount of information they share with the United States”.

Chinese news portals and social media have also been mocking Trump’s other cabinet appointments, including his pick for Defence Secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth. A video of Hegseth throwing an axe and accidentally hitting a nearby drummer has gone viral on the Chinese internet.

“This is equivalent to [former Global Times editor-in-chief] Hu Xijin being appointed as the Minister of National Defence,” said one popular post.

Other Chinese social media users argued there was logic in Trump’s unconventional approach. “The team level seems to be disorganised and chaotic, but in fact it is very cunning and has a clear purpose. It will do anything to achieve its goal,” said one.