Australia and China patch things up

WHEN ANTHONY ALBANESE shook hands with Xi Jinping in Beijing on November 6th, it marked the first time in seven years that an Australian prime minister had travelled to China to meet its leader. For much of the intervening period the two countries’ economic and political relations were badly ruptured. Yet in the Great Hall of the People Mr Xi declared that China and Australia had “embarked on the right path of improvement”. Mr Albanese, for his part, said that Australia supported China’s growth and “ongoing engagement with the world”. That his visit came on the 50th anniversary of Australia’s opening of diplomatic relations with Communist-run China was intended by both sides to symbolise a significant step towards normalisation.There were several causes of the rupture, but at root was China’s desire to bend Australia to its will. Its rulers were angered by Australia’s deepening security co-operation with America, its longtime ally, in response to China’s growing assertiveness towards Taiwan, the seas around it and beyond. Australia’s decision to bar Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, increased the friction. So did the umbrage Australia’s then conservative government took at signs of Chinese “sharp” power, including interference and surveillance orchestrated through the Chinese embassy in Canberra and within Australia’s universities and large Chinese diaspora. As Australia grew increasingly hawkish towards China, in late 2020 that Chinese embassy handed a laundry list of grievances to the Australian press. China also froze ministerial exchanges between the two countries and slapped embargoes on some Australian exports, including barley, timber, coal, sugar, wine and lobsters.