‘Ice thaws, but slowly’: inside Penny Wong’s historic China trip
It’s a brisk -6C when Penny Wong meets with Australia’s ambassador to China for a quick walk around the fenced off compound. The mood in Beijing is changing.
“The ice thaws, but slowly,” observed Foreign Minister Penny Wong to Australia’s ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher, as the pair walked around the Diaoyutai Gardens in Beijing.
Partially frozen ornamental man-made ponds and rivulets run throughout the more than 20 buildings of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse compound in Beijing’s Haidian District.
It’s a brisk -6C on Wednesday morning when Mr Fletcher and Senator Wong meet for a quick walk around the fenced-off compound frequently used by the Chinese government to host visiting dignitaries, including world leaders.
Australians based in the Beijing embassy nearby confirm it’s normally colder this late in December, but on this occasion the warm sun has melted patches of the frozen ponds and created large cracks in the ice.
Asked if she was “looking forward to breaking the ice” ahead of her meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi later on Wednesday, Senator Wong’s observation about the slow-melting ponds was an apt description of Australia’s relationship with China.
Senator Wong travelled to Beijing with a small Australian contingent, which included Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Jan Adams and about half a dozen other officials, in a Covid-19 “bubble”.
Mr Fletcher joined the Australian “bubble” in the compound on Tuesday night, along with several diplomats from the embassy in Beijing.
After a walk in the compound, Mr Fletcher briefed Senator Wong in a meeting room in one of the buildings.
The grounds of the compound are scattered with large, old trees, with winding roads between the various hotel and conference room buildings.
There are nods to traditional Chinese architecture all around, with ornate gold dragons posed near street lamps, and various pergolas and decorative outdoor sitting areas mostly used in the warmer summer months.
Mr Fletcher said Australia will be “protesting vigorously” against a ban on consular visits to jailed citizens in China introduced as a massive wave of Covid-19 swept the country.
Diplomats have not been able to visit detainees such as Australian-Chinese journalist Cheng Lei and writer Dr Yang Hengjun since September after China enforced a total ban on consular access for all countries to all prisoners due to a surge in Covid cases.
Mr Fletcher said consular officials were particularly focused on regaining access to detained citizens.
“At the moment, because China is experiencing a (Covid) surge, it has unfortunately stopped regular (consular) access to all prisoners … for all countries. We are protesting vigorously about that,” he said.
Senator Wong’s trip featured on the front page of the China Daily paper on Tuesday with a story titled “hopes expressed for Australia FM visit”.
The state-run paper said China “expressed its hope” for ties with Australia to “return to the right track” and “develop in a sustainable manner”.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China expected to take the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Australia as “an opportunity to strengthen dialogue and expand co-operation” while also “managing differences”.
“Bilateral ties had deteriorated for years due to a series of actions taken by the former Australian government, including offending China’s core interests, falsely accusing China of ‘infiltration’ and limiting Australia’s co-operation with China,” the China Daily article said.
On Wednesday the 50th anniversary and Senator Wong’s visit featured prominently across Chinese-language and English media in China.
Most of the opinion articles were positive about Australia, even in the traditionally more adversarial and “wolf warrior”-style Global Times, which described the anniversary as an opportunity with “pitfalls”.
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