Whitlam, Nixon, Albanese: PM uses Great Wall to place himself in history

In case the symbolism wasn’t obvious, the prime minister spelled it out.

Standing on the Great Wall on a muggy Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese placed himself in the long arc of Australia’s history of managing relations with China.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and fiancee Jodie Haydon visit the Great Wall of China on Wednesday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Labor icon Gough Whitlam, as opposition leader, went ahead of the United States in 1971 to open relations with China. He was followed by US President Richard Nixon’s establishment of engagement with China.

“At the time, that was a controversial decision to recognise the People’s Republic of China,” Albanese said, adding that it was also the correct one.

“I have the sense of history following in the footsteps of ... Gough Whitlam.

“We are literally standing on history.”

The prime minister referenced the US leadership of the time that Whitlam had risked upsetting.

Now, as then, Albanese faces pressure from Australia’s closest military and cultural partner, the US, to stick firmly by its side as he adds economic and diplomatic layers to the era of stabilisation with China which Labor kicked off in 2022.

China has failed to democratise in the way many in the West had hoped in Whitlam’s time. Albanese admitted he was dealing with a different beast, but said the best way to manage differences was to build as much trust as realistically possible.

“We don’t shout with a megaphone,” he remarked, referring to his predecessor Scott Morrison’s confrontational diplomatic style that drew China’s ire.

If chumminess is the name of the game, China knew which buttons to press when Albanese came to town.

The pub rock-loving PM was treated to Chinese covers of Powderfinger, Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil at dinner in Beijing’s Great Hall on Tuesday.

Power and the Passion was the Oils’ song played, according to Albanese. The lyrics from the activist band’s hit are pro-Whitlam and make jabs at “Uncle Sam” and the Pine Gap intelligence facility – all made in the context of paranoia around the US role in Whitlam’s 1975 dismissal.

Albanese and Xi were splashed on page one of the China Daily, a state media publication. Russia’s foreign minister, who met Xi on the same day as the PM, was relegated to page three despite Russia’s “no limits” relationship with China.

“They did the full kit and caboodle,” Albanese said. “And so, it was a splendid occasion.”

It’s hard to see how China’s wooing of Albanese makes ambassador Kevin Rudd’s job easier in Washington as he works to preserve the AUKUS pact in talks with the China hawks in the Trump administration.

The Great Wall, usually jammed with tourists, was cleared for Albanese’s visit. Freeways across Shanghai and Beijing were closed off for the prime minister’s motorcades, with Australian flags lining the streets.

After a short press conference – decked in his Rabbitohs cap and tennis shoes – Albanese went for a walk up the wall with a tour guide and fiancee Jodie Haydon.

Once the money shot was in view, he took off his Ray-Bans, asked the guide and translator to move aside, shooed reporters and assorted hangers-on out of the way, cleared the path ahead of him for what he clearly expects will become an iconic photo in the same stretch of the wall as Whitlam.

Even while feeling the weight of history, Albanese had his nuptials on his mind after photographers captured the scenic shot.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and fiancee Jodie Haydon pose for a photo on the Great Wall of China on Wednesday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“Anyone here a celebrant?” he asked with a smirk.

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