China and Xi give Albanese a warm welcome, but another side is never far away

Xi Jinping was a picture of calm as Anthony Albanese approached for his handshake, the Australian prime minister grinning broadly. The Chinese president beamed as he clasped Albanese’s hand and posed for the cameras on Tuesday.

The formal meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall was followed by a more intimate banquet between the leaders, which was interpreted as a sign of warmth from the Chinese side that went further than the reception given to some visiting leaders.

China Daily, a state media outlet, trumpeted the unusual length of Albanese’s visit (six days) and claimed the prime minister’s office saw the trip as a “friendly gesture” made “against the backdrop of rising tensions between the United States and many countries”.

But two awkward moments involving Australian journalists travelling with the prime minister acted as a counterweight to the stage-managed moments of warmth and words of co-operation that the leaders exchanged.

Earlier in the day, TV journalists at the Drum Tower in Beijing were temporarily stopped from getting back on their bus by local security officials who did not believe they had permission to film in the area.

Hours later, two Australian press photographers, including one from this masthead, were blocked from entering the room to capture Albanese’s handshake with Xi. Only Albanese’s personal photography team was allowed in, along with Chinese media.

Press photographers were allowed to capture the meeting between the delegations, but not the leaders’ handshake.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The drama over photographers might seem innocuous, but it points to a deeper issue: just how far Australia can push the stabilisation of its relationship with China.

Albanese’s enterprising work in pushing green steel during this visit could help secure Australia’s $100 billion annual iron ore trade as the world looks to decarbonise its industries. A series of high-level business meetings could also aid trade between the two countries.

Xi’s warm smile on Tuesday confirmed that relations with China are at a high point after reaching their nadir in the Morrison era. Back then, Xi launched a series of unjustified trade strikes against Australia for taking a confrontational approach to China’s pandemic management.

The mantra of disagreeing only “where we must” meant that problems in the relationship were de-emphasised under Labor to get trade back on track.

But former prime minister John Howard remarked in his memoirs that it was folly for any Australian leader to try to take the China relationship beyond the transactional. The cultural gap and differences in respective political systems were just too vast, he believed.

Just this week, speculation emerged that China might retaliate against Labor’s move to take the Port of Darwin out of Chinese hands.

The prospect of fresh retaliation raises whether China, in the new era of stabilisation, has made any change at all in its attitude towards Australia when it asserts its sovereignty. Xi did not raise the issue in his conversation with Albanese, while the prime minister did make Australia’s displeasure clear over Chinese ships’ lack of warning about live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea this year.

The prime minister has so far managed not to yield on security and sovereignty at the same time as bolstering trade ties. That is to his credit, and perhaps he can continue to do both.

However, he gave vague answers regarding China’s huge military build-up and its strategic aims after he met with Xi.

And the Australian delegation’s failure to push back on Chinese restrictions that led to Australian photographers being stopped from capturing the prime minister shaking hands with Xi is not a good sign for the government’s posture toward the Asian superpower.

Albanese’s visit on Wednesday to the symbolic Great Wall, where left-wing icon Gough Whitlam went to recognise China in 1972, won’t do anything to quieten critics in Australia’s noisy, hawkish security and foreign policy establishment.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.