Business scrambles for Canberra audience with China’s foreign minister as Paul Keating confirms meeting
Executives from Rio Tinto and Cochlear are expected to join the private event with China’s visiting foreign minister, as even business figures criticise Paul Keating’s “stupid” meeting with Wang Yi.
Senior Australian business figures are scrambling to get to Canberra for a secretive, hastily-organised event with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on a trip that has been overshadowed by a “pointed and somewhat insulting” meeting between Xi Jinping’s top international affairs adviser and Paul Keating.
The Australian can reveal senior executives from mining giant Rio Tinto and hearing-aid maker Cochlear are expected to be at the closed-door lunch on Wednesday, which is being arranged by the Chinese government and the Australia China Business Council.
Executives from Treasury Wine Estates and Graincorp — two of the largest Australian businesses caught up in China’s trade coercion campaign — were said to be among the 10 invited guests, although the extremely short notice means they may be unable to attend.
“Everyone’s really nervous. No one wants to do anything that upsets things,” said a source at one of the invited companies, speaking anonymously because of the extreme sensitivity.
The Australian has also learned that a protest against Chinese government human rights abuses is being organised for Wednesday morning outside Parliament House, and is expected to include members of Australia’s Tibet, Uyghur and Hong Kong diaspora communities.
It will be held as Foreign Minister Penny Wong meets with her Chinese counterpart on what will be the most senior visit by a member of Xi Jinping’s government in seven years. Mr Wang is due to arrive in Sydney late on Tuesday.
Chinese officials had been working to create “positive energy” before the visit, signalling that Beijing’s crippling wine tariff will be lifted before the end of the month.
Figures in the Australian lobster industry are hopeful they may also get good news on their now almost four-year long black-listing after Wednesday’s meeting.
But China’s decision to seek out a meeting with Mr Keating, the most prominent critic of the Albanese government’s foreign policy, has derailed Canberra’s fastidious preparations for the visit.
Members of the government were dismayed by the former Labor leader’s latest intervention.
A senior Australian business figure said told The Australian it was “the biggest Chinese diplomatic own-goal” since officials at China’s embassy in Canberra released its list of “14 demands” in late 2020.
“It’s stupid. And you know what is even more stupid? Paul agreeing to it,” the business figure said.
On Monday, as China’s Foreign Minister met his counterpart Winston Peters and New Zealand PM Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Wellington, the former Labor Prime Minister bristled at criticism of his audience with the senior Chinese envoy.
The Australian had revealed that Chinese officials had been seeking to arrange the meeting with Australia’s most prominent AUKUS critic. It is set to be held in Sydney on Thursday.
“As a matter of courtesy, let alone anything else, I was happy to advise the Chinese Foreign Ministry that, given I had the time, I would be pleased to sit down and discuss international matters with the Foreign Minister,” the former Labor PM said in a statement.
Mr Keating said that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had offered — after the invitation was made — to facilitate the arrangements.
Sources familiar with the preparations for the meeting said the offer was extended to ensure security and appropriate support for Mr Keating and the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister.
Mr Keating said on Monday that he had “strongly supported” the Albanese government’s efforts to “re-anchor Australian foreign policy in the region”, and “stabilise relations with China”.
“And, given the chance, I will be emphasising these points to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Australia has moved substantially from the counter-productive baiting policy the Morrison government applied to China to now something much more civil and productive,” he said.
His meeting with President Xi’s top foreign policy adviser will be held just a fortnight after he sharply criticised Senator Wong as she and Anthony Albanese hosted leaders from South East Asia and New Zealand at the ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne.
In his Monday statement, the former Prime Minister said he supported the Albanese government “most, if not all the time”.
Mr Keating also took issue at The Australian’s reporting of the invitation as an “extraordinary intervention” and a “jarring addition” to Mr Wang’s visit, as the Albanese government attempts to recalibrate relations with Beijing.
“Would The Australian so describe as ‘jarring’ and ‘extraordinary’ a similar invitation from the British Foreign Secretary to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott or Scott Morrison? Of course not,” he said.
“This is the normal intercourse of national and international discussion that takes place across the world.”
After repeatedly attacking the Sydney Morning Herald over its reporting on China, Mr Keating claimed The Australian’s reporting on the subject was “distorted” and “trenchantly anti-Chinese”.
In his public statement on March 5 that stunned capitals around the region, Mr Keating said “it doesn’t take much to encourage Penny Wong, sporting her ‘deeply concerned’ frown, to rattle the China can”.
The attack came after Senator Wong criticised Beijing’s behaviour in the South China Sea in a keynote speech.
Mr Keating also chided the Albanese government for not sacking the head of ASIO Mike Burgess and head of the Office National Intelligence Andrew Shearer, who he said were part of “the anti-China Australian strategic policy establishment”.
Those incendiary comments followed an address last year at the National Press Club where he mocked Senator Wong’s diplomatic efforts in the Pacific, a key priority for the government.
“Running around the Pacific Islands with a lei around your neck handing out money, which is what Penny does, is not foreign policy. It’s a consular task,” Mr Keating said.
“Foreign policy is what you do with the great powers: what you do with China, what you do with the United States,” he said.
While the former prime minister’s increasingly brazen interventions have frustrated the government, they have been well received in Beijing where he has been praised by China’s Foreign Ministry for his “voice of reason”.
China’s leaders and senior officials regularly seek out meetings with select retired leaders.
Last year, President Xi Jinping hosted former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing, a pointed meeting held after relations had soured with the Philippines current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Mr Keating is the only former Prime Minister that Beijing has sought a meeting with during Mr Wang’s visit.
Senator Wong’s office again declined to comment on the meeting on Monday.
Shadow Foreign Minister Senator Birmingham said Mr Keating’s meeting was “pointed and somewhat insulting” given the extent of his commentary directed towards Australia’s Foreign Minister.
“Paul Keating’s reckless and irresponsible comments since the Albanese Government was elected demonstrates an underlying division within the broader Labor Party,” Senator Birmingham said.
“Australia is a country of free speech and diverse political thought. Some will see a certain irony in this meeting being sought.
“Whatever their personal views, our former Prime Ministers carry with them a special responsibility to be cognisant of changing security challenges and judicious in the use of their office.
“Paul Keating’s running commentary has been neither, and is clearly welcomed for propaganda purposes elsewhere,” he said.
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