Cheng Lei: The questions Albanese must ask of Xi Jinping to prove Australia ‘cares about our people' and global stability

Sky News AU

5 days ago

Observing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to China this week is like watching something happen in multi-faceted mirrors.
China's lens is naturally uber-positive.
Albanese's visit is being reported in the Chinese media as Australia seeking certainty in an uncertain global environment.
Or it's framed as a business story, opportunities for cooperation in steel decarbonisation, sport, education and tourism.
The fact that it is a long visit that also includes a non-Beijing or Shanghai city, that it's Albanese's first visit to China since re-election, that it marks the start of the second decade of the comprehensive strategic partnership all amp up the usual state propaganda cheer.
Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian wrote an op-ed in the People's Daily titled 'Promoting the steady and long-term development of the China-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership'.
It is broadly similar to his piece in the Australian Financial Review on the visit, but has nothing about upgrading the bilateral free trade deal to include AI and the digital economy, just fluff about reaffirming friendship and shared prosperity.
Australia is not the only country China is keen on wooing.
On Monday July 14, as our media reported on Mr Albanese's lunch speech for the business community in Shanghai, Chinese news carried items about the Indian foreign minister visiting China for the first time in five years, the Latin America China forum's cooperation efforts, and several stories about the US.
China's main challenge is the US and Beijing's conveyor belt of visiting dignitaries is about strengthening relationships to buy some security on that front.
Keen for anything to show up the US, China's Global Times chided the Pentagon for pressuring allies, after the Financial Times reported that US undersecretary of defence Eldridge Colby sought Japan and Australia's intended roles if there is conflict over the island.
The awkward timing of that question reflects our anxieties and fears.
We're afraid we can't isolate trade from security.
Or balance between a seemingly sensible dictatorship and an erratic president.
Or have our strategic independence and stay in a security alliance.
Australia wants to hedge in the face of an unpredictable US administration and a belligerent China.
Our neighbours, ASEAN countries and south Asian states, also have a lot at stake in the great power rivalry.
Japan, the EU and Canada are similar swing partners between China and the US.
On trade right now, China seems more rational and predictable.
But on human rights, Beijing does not see individuals the same way we do.
Anyone seen as imperilling the Party is dispensable.
Mr Albanese's visit comes just after the tenth anniversary of the 'July 9' crackdown that led to the arrests of 300 human rights lawyers and activists.
It comes at a time when lead poisoning of 200 kids in western China can't be publicly reported or commented on and the parents can't even take them for blood testing in the city.
When Peng Zaizhou, the lone man who held up a banner denouncing Xi in 2022, remains 'disappeared' and dozens of erotic fiction writers have been arrested and jailed.
We don't interfere in China's domestic issues but they highlight the vast gulf between us – China is all about survival of the party, at the expense of individuals.
I remember when I saw on the state news in prison Albanese's first talks with Xi in 2022.
A few weeks later I got the only phone call with family in all of my incarcerated three years and two months.
Two years later, our compatriot Dr Yang Hengjun is still in jail with a death reprieve sentence.
How is it for him to watch the news about Albanese's visit?
Is there more or less impetus to push his case now that bilateral relations have been 'stabilised'?
If not medical bail and freedom, how about gentler and more humane treatment for a 60-year-old man with a kidney condition who's already suffered six years of imprisonment?
While PM Albanese marvels at the extraordinary transformation of Shanghai strolling along the Bund with Shanghai Port manager Kevin Muscat, I wonder if he sees the true cost of it.
Or anyone looking at China's progress and praising the leadership for its vision.
The growth comes from over a billion people sacrificing personal freedoms, from the hard slog of 'becoming the cog that the state wheel needs most', from a social contract that is so unjust but is still accepted because the decades before were much worse, from having 100 million party members who have vested interests in ensuring its rule.
What the PM will not see among the gleaming skyscrapers is China's stepping up of preparations to take over Taiwan.
From the constant rhetoric that everyone must be ready for combat at all times to the build-up of military grain reserves.
A recent purge of senior military officials came about because they sounded a 'prudent' tone on the takeover.
China wants to grow stronger to keep the rule of the CCP more stable.
Australia's interests are security and prosperity for its people.
Mr Albanese, as our leader, cannot afford to not grow trade with China.
But we also cannot afford to not show, at every opportunity, that we care about our people, and we want peace in the region.
Cheng Lei joined Sky News Australia as a TV news presenter and columnist at SkyNews.com.au in December 2023. Prior to her role at Sky News Australia, she was a news anchor for Chinese-owned news channel CGTN and was CNBC's China correspondent. In August 2020, Cheng Lei was detained by Chinese authorities. She was released and returned to Australia in October 2023.