China moves to repair damage it caused to relations with Canberra

Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2023 BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August. Picture: AFP

Anthony Albanese’s meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit is another breakthrough moment in the slow restoration of the China-Australia relationship.

Beijing is now primarily driving this rebalance through conciliatory words and actions that stand in stark contrast to its wolf warrior, wrecking ball behaviour of recent years, which led the relationship to crumble.

Mr Li, in his meeting with the Prime Minister, spoke of a renewed relationship that “has continued to show a positive momentum of movement” and of his hopes “to work with you to further improve and grow the bilateral relationship”.

He reiterated the invitation for Mr Albanese to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later this year, an invitation that the Prime Minister has accepted.

An editorial this week in the state-run Global Times offered a further insight into China’s new tone in its dealings with Australia. It described the visit of a large Australian delegation to China, including former Labor minister Craig Emerson and former Liberal foreign minister Julie Bishop, as “a momentous event between China and Australia”, and “a reflection of the East-West relationship as a whole”.

The Global Times went on: “After the (Albanese) government came to power and began adjusting its policy towards China, China-Australia relations rebounded.”

Let’s shake on it … Anthony Albanese meets China’s Premier Li Qiang in Jakarta on Thursday. Picture: AAP

This last statement is a complete distortion of the truth but a necessary falsehood that China must state publicly to allow it to repair its relationship with Australia without losing face.

The truth is it is China, rather than Australia, which has adjusted its policy to help repair the relationship. It did so after realising its “wolf warrior” behaviour when Beijing sought to punish Australia over its foreign interference laws, the banning of Chinese telco Huawei from the 5G rollout and Canberra’s call for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, were ultimately futile.

Beijing saw that slapping trade sanctions on Australia, worth $20bn, and the trumped-up arrests of Australian citizens in China were ineffectual in changing Australian policy, under either the Coalition or Labor governments.

The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have deftly handled this slow reparation by avoiding some of the more hostile rhetoric directed towards China by the former Coalition government while not taking a backward step on actual policy.

Restoration of the relationship is a work in progress and will continue to be a slow-burn on both sides. The process began with the meeting between Mr Albanese and Mr Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last November and has progressed with bilateral meetings of senior ministers this year.

Anthony Albanese jokes with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Thursday. Picture: Reuters

Although China has repealed some of its trade bans, including recently the massive tariff on Australian barley, there are still bans worth at least $2.5bn including on wine, lobster and some red meats. Diplomatically, the relationship continues to be undermined by China’s ongoing and unjustified detention of Australians Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun.

The government has been wise not to make removal of the remaining trade bans or release of the two Australians a firm condition of Mr Albanese’s upcoming visit to Beijing but China knows these two actions are ultimately necessary if it wants to restore the relationship to something approaching normality.

However, the change in China’s mood is palpable. The Global Times this week stated that “the restart of this high-level dialogue is seen as a sign of further warming of China-Australia relations”.

This was the same newspaper that declared in early 2020: “Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.”

It seems Australia is no longer chewing gum.