Beijing’s surprise for Penny Wong a good reminder of the state of play

Penny Wong with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, China, on Wednesday. Picture: DFAT

At the start of the year, Australia had just about the worst relationship with China in the world.

Thanks to months of careful diplomacy by the Albanese government, 2022 ends with our relations being merely strained, as are China’s ties with Japan, the UK, Canada, India and, of course, the US.

Penny Wong’s overnight visit to Beijing this week was an excellent development.

But our Foreign Minister’s time in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse included a sharp reminder of the gulf between Australia’s interests and those of China.

President Xi made the point personally.

On the same day as Senator Wong’s visit, and in the same official venue, Xi met with Dmitry Medvedev, the Putin loyalist who recently said Russia had the right to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Was the Australian delegation given a heads-up that Putin’s envoy would be meeting with Xi in the same compound as our Foreign Minister?

They had no idea.

I understand they found out through Chinese party state media, which released a picture of a beaming Xi and Medvedev shaking hands.

Penny Wong’s meeting with Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, was significant. It’s not often that Australian ministers have a private dinner with someone who has Xi’s ear.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote in The Australian on Monday: “We are always going to be better off when we engage in dialogue.”

Regrettably, Beijing has proven itself to be a fairweather dialogue partner.

Governments as varied as those led by prime ministers John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison were all given the freezer treatment after upsetting Beijing.

The spells of “no speakies” have only gotten longer and more frequent during the Xi era. It is welcome the latest blizzard has passed, but China’s actions have left a mighty repair job.

Wednesday’s agenda was packed with Beijing’s recent spectacularly counter-productive behaviour: locking up our citizens, black-listing our products, chasing out our media, et cetera.

Fixing those messes could take most of the energy in the relationship in 2023. It may take even longer.

China calls Russia a “comprehensive strategic partner”, the same term it uses to describe its relationship with Australia.

In our case, the “strategic” label remains aspirational. China asked to start using the term back in the Rudd-Gillard era, when we were negotiating over a free-trade agreement.

The Abbott government then elevated the relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in 2014 when Xi visited Canberra to sign the long sought after FTA.

Back then, Canberra hoped the creation of an annual Foreign and Strategic Dialogue, along with a host of other high-level meetings, would encourage Beijing to talk through difficult issues.

As recent history shows, Beijing had other ideas.

That is China’s right, but until it changes its approach the relationship can never be anything like comprehensive or strategic.

Even calling it a partnership seems a stretch.

Months into Canberra’s latest stint in the freezer, one of Australia’s wisest foreign policy thinkers advised a quiet end to the label.

“Do not treat the PRC as an enemy,” wrote Peter Varghese, the former head of DFAT, “but quietly abandon the notion that we can have a comprehensive strategic partnership with the PRC as long as it remains a one-party authoritarian state.

“Such a partnership assumes an alignment of strategic interests, which simply does not currently exist.”

It was wise advice then. It remains wise advice now as relations thaw modestly.

Australian policy makers should do their best to avoid a return to the freezer. But don’t be surprised if, or rather when, our calls again go unanswered.

Medvedev’s presence in Beijing was a good reminder that even the best Australian diplomacy will only get us so far with China.