The Guardian-A new chapter how China sees Albaneses ice-breaking state visit
November 3, 2023 4 min 821 words
中国国家媒体对澳大利亚总理安东尼·阿尔班尼的“破冰”国事访问表示热烈欢迎，将这次访问视为澳中关系的新篇章。近年来，澳中关系已经出现严重紧张，但中国国内媒体现在赞扬双方重归于好，尤其强调了贸易关系的回暖。中国官方媒体将此次访问描述为政治和经济上的“破冰”，并指出之前澳大利亚政府对中国采取对抗立场导致了对话的中断。 这篇报道反映出中国对澳大利亚的一些看法，包括对澳大利亚一直以来被视为美国的盟友，并未独立行事的观点。中国媒体认为澳大利亚应更加独立思考，不应该在中国和美国之间挑选。此次访问之前，澳大利亚取消了对中国葡萄酒等进口产品的关税，作为回报，中国同意放宽对澳大利亚风力发电塔的限制。还有一名被扣押的澳大利亚记者在此次访问之前获释。 澳中关系的改善是一个积极的信号，但双方之间仍然存在一些分歧。这次访问为两国提供了机会，重新审视彼此的关系，寻找共同利益，但需要谨慎处理敏感问题，如贸易、安全和地缘政治。随着全球局势的不断演变，澳大利亚需要保持独立和务实，以维护国家利益。
It’s a busy time in Beijing – this autumn has already hosted a major Belt and Road forum, international dignitaries, and a security summit. But an upcoming visit by the Australian prime minister has also prompted a flurry of preparations and discussion.
Anthony Albanese’s three-day tour of Shanghai and Beijing, the first prime ministerial visit to the country in seven years, is being warmly welcomed. He is expected to meet with the premier, Li Qiang – the host of the official visit – and the president, Xi Jinping, with whom Canberra has said Albanese will raise tough issues.
Chinese state media reporting on the upcoming visit have characterised the trip as a new chapter of the turbulent Australia-China relationship, a thawing of a frost which had hardened over recent years. Many reports have lauded the return to higher trade. On Thursday, a lengthy interview in the People’s Daily with the former trade minister, Andrew Robb, was glowing about the economic relationship and hope for the future.
The official outlet China Daily described the trip as politically and economically “ice-breaking” after dialogue halted in 2016 “because of the previous Australian government’s adversarial stance toward China”.
Reports and Chinese officials who spoke to the Guardian cited Australia’s Huawei ban, early calls for a Covid-19 inquiry, and the 2020 Asio raid on Chinese state media reporters. Several said a key point of tension was Canberra’s strengthening of regional partnerships which appear targeted towards China – including Aukus, the Quad and strengthening ties with Japan – and its “interference” in the South China Sea.
Beijing has characterised much of Australia’s actions as blindly following the US, China’s major rival. “For most of its history, Australia has been reluctant to exercise independence and to partner with the countries in its region,” said a China Daily editorial.
“I don’t think Australia should pick and choose between China and the United States,” said Victor Gao, chair professor at Soochow University, in a video op-ed published by the Global Times.
“Australia is not a competitor for China – militarily, politically speaking, economically speaking, in terms of trading relations.”
In Beijing, a senior analyst at a Chinese thinktank told the Guardian that Australia needed to think “more independently”.
Several concessions were made before the visit. Tariffs on wine and other Australian imports have been lifted in return for Australia easing restrictions on Chinese windtowers. The Australian journalist Cheng Lei was released from detention after almost three years on undefined national security charges, although it was officially explained as the conclusion of criminal justice processes.
Last month, a small group of Australian journalists, including this reporter, were invited to China. The tightly managed trip was the resumption of a decade-long exchange program between the Australia Pacific Journalism Centre and the Chinese Communist party-linked All-China Journalists Association. The program had paused because of the pandemic, but its resumption remained on ice amid the souring relations.
It was suggested the week-long trip was both a gesture of goodwill ahead of Albanese’s visit, and something of a test. No Australian media outlets have had correspondents in China since the ABC’s Bill Birtles and Michael Smith from the AFR fled in 2020 after being interrogated by security services.
Under the authoritarian rule of Xi, candid conversations with people inside China has become increasingly difficult and – if opinions are critical of the CCP – dangerous. Voices from outside the tour spoke of a chilling of critical conversation, and a suspicion that there was little if any critical information reaching Xi from fearful subordinates. One noted that leader-to-leader meetings like Albanese’s were increasingly crucial as the only way to guarantee Xi was receiving a complete message.
In discussion about the decline in relations, party officials, thinktankers, state media journalists and business people supported a common state media narrative that the blame lay entirely with the Morrison and Turnbull governments – nevermind that the Albanese government has largely stuck to the same foreign policy stance.
“Sensational” Australian media reporting about the threat of China was also noted, as was domestic concern about levels of foreign investment in Australia’s property market. Australian concern over China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang was rejected, but there was surprising acceptance of the reputational damage done by its crackdown in Hong Kong. Objections to Beijing’s threats to Taiwan were roundly dismissed as not the world’s business. Few would speak about the release of Cheng Lei, either declining or answering a completely different and unasked question. None would talk of Yang Hengjun, still in prison.
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Additional research by Chi Hui Lin