APEC 2023: Anthony Albanese avoids upsetting ‘Dictator Xi’ Jinping

Anthony Albanese has not joined with Joe Biden in describing Xi Jinping as a ‘dictator’ after a long diplomatic campaign to normalise relations and remove trade sanctions.

Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese at the APEC summit in San Francisco, California, on Friday (AEDT). Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese has not joined with Joe Biden in describing Chinese President Xi Jinping as a ­“dictator” after a long diplomatic campaign to normalise relations and remove trade sanctions, but he did acknowledge that China had a different political system without elections.

Attending the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in San Francisco, the Prime Minister used his first full day of meetings to support measures aimed at boosting trade, investment and jobs as attempts by Mr Biden to clinch a new US-led Pacific trade pact went unrealised.

However, the US President told business leaders at the APEC leaders’ summit that the Pacific was now “more vital than ever” to American interests, reaffirming that he was “de-risking and diversifying” economic relations with Beijing – but “not decoupling”.

“A stable relationship between the world’s two largest economies is not merely good for the two economies but for the world,” he said. “It’s good for everyone.”

He also talked up the need for collective action on climate change, warning the world was at an “inflection point” where decisions made now would shape outcomes for several decades.

Mr Albanese used the summit to engage further with Mr Biden and Mr Xi as their attempt to build a new foundation for more stable relations emerged as the key story from the gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders, with both nations agreeing to resume military to military dialogue. The Prime Minister opted not to join with Mr Biden in describing the Chinese leader as a “dictator” – a term used by the President in his press conference following a four-hour meeting with Mr Xi and which drew a strong rebuke from Beijing – but agreed in substance with the ­description. “We have different political systems from China,” Mr Albanese said. “As I’ve said consistently, Australia is a democracy and China has a very different ­political system. They don’t have elections.”

Mr Albanese will hold bilateral meetings on Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, before attending the APEC leaders’ retreat. He also provided an assurance that, despite his busy international agenda, he was “fully involved” in the decision at home to accept stricter conditions on non-citizens released from indefinite detention.

Mr Albanese defended the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework – an initiative launched by the US in May 2022 to deepen ties in Asia and counter Chinese influence – as delivering key outcomes for the region despite the 14 member grouping unable to conclude an agreement on trade.

Members instead used the APEC summit to announce a consensus on three of the framework’s four key pillars: supply chain resilience, clean energy and anti-corruption co-operation. Mr Biden acknowledged a breakthrough on trade would require “more work” after talks ahead of the leaders’ summit were derailed, including by the framework’s promotion of stronger labour standards.

“Our work is not yet done,” Mr Biden said. “This framework will be a platform for ongoing economic co-operation. And we will continue working to better facilitate high-standard trade that advances workers’ rights though strong enforceable labour standards.” Mr Albanese said it was a positive start for IPEF, declaring that “when you’ve got three out of four, you are doing pretty well in these processes”,

“And (on) trade there’s ongoing negotiations – we know that trade agreements are difficult.”

Mr Biden said the agreement on supply chain resilience was the “first of its kind” and would identify supply bottlenecks before they “become the kind of disruption we saw during the pandemic” which had resulted in the semiconductor supply drying up in Asia.

The announcement of a new critical minerals dialogue to strengthen collaboration between IPEF members was also welcomed by Mr Albanese as allowing Australia to play a greater role in transitioning the region to cleaner energy. “We see this is an enormous opportunity for us going forward for jobs and for the resources sector,” he said.

Arriving earlier at the leaders’ summit, Mr Albanese held bilateral meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Australia’s ambassador to America, Kevin Rudd, who is ­attending the summit, also sat in on the meetings.

Mr Albanese met with California Governor Gavin Newsom and BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink who was one of many business leaders who attended a dinner the previous night with Mr Xi.

Mr Xi told the gathering the No.1 question for Beijing about its relations with the US was “Are we adversaries or partners?”