Albanese's China challenge: balancing trade and values
Albanese can say he met Chinese President Xi Jinping for two hours of talks, had a banquet lunch, magnificent dinners (Paul Kelly and Powderfinger songs!) and basically mended the rift from the Scott Morrison years.
The two leaders were warm in their comments towards each country. Albanese can take this as an embrace, giving rise to a feeling as warm and fuzzy as watching a panda frolic in the sun.
Albanese's week was an act of diplomacy that was necessary to Australia's economic wellbeing. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, China is Australia's largest two-way trading partner.
Trade with China in 2023-24 accounted for 26 per cent of our goods and services trade with the world. Two-way trade with China totalled $325 billion, of which goods and services exports were $212.7 billion. Iron ore exports to China last year alone were worth $US79.6 billion ($121 billion).
The seeming harmony of the past week is a far cry from the years of Morrison's government, when China placed trade bans worth about $20 billion on exports over what it saw as Australia's hostility towards it, partly due to Morrison's view on the origins of COVID-19, though this was never the stated reason. The sanctions have since been lifted.
The thawing of this latest Cold War between Australia and China should be seen as but one front on the bilateral battlefield. While it is true, as French historian Montesquieu wrote 300 years ago, that 'peace is a natural effect of trade', it is not the only factor.
In dealing with China, a set of scales is always on the table. On one side is the money and trade-derived wealth, on the other is the very nature of the regime, that is, its authoritarianism, its geopolitical ambitions, its treatment of its people and minority groups within its borders, including its suppression of human rights and dissent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
5 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The long climb: Disaster for Coalition in new opinion poll as Albanese builds on record win
The first post-federal election opinion poll has revealed the scale of the battle facing Opposition Leader Sussan Ley as she seeks to rebuild a shattered Liberal Party, with support for the Coalition falling to a near-record low. But the new Resolve Political Monitor also shows that the dire situation confronting Ley has not translated into a surge of support for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, even as voters believe Labor is better able to deal with issues ranging from the economy to national security. The 48th Parliament will on Tuesday sit for the first time since the May 3 election. Albanese holds a record 94 seats in the House of Representatives after trouncing the Coalition 55-45 on a two-party preferred basis. At the election, the Coalition's primary vote dropped almost four percentage points to 31.8 per cent. The Resolve poll shows its primary support has fallen another three points to just 29 per cent – its lowest level since early 2023. Most of that drop has flowed to One Nation, with Labor's primary vote increasing marginally to 35 per cent. It secured 34.6 per cent at the May election. On a two-party preferred level, based on preferences as nominated by the 2311 people who took part in the poll, Labor leads the Coalition 56-44. Resolve Strategic director Jim Reed said the Coalition was now in 'real strife', arguing that while the party needed a primary vote in the 40s to be competitive, it was struggling to get into the 30s. However, he cautioned that Albanese was not enjoying the honeymoon he had following the 2022 election, when Labor's primary vote regularly reached 42 per cent.
The Age
5 minutes ago
- The Age
The long climb: Disaster for Coalition in new opinion poll as Albanese builds on record win
The first post-federal election opinion poll has revealed the scale of the battle facing Opposition Leader Sussan Ley as she seeks to rebuild a shattered Liberal Party, with support for the Coalition falling to a near-record low. But the new Resolve Political Monitor also shows that the dire situation confronting Ley has not translated into a surge of support for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, even as voters believe Labor is better able to deal with issues ranging from the economy to national security. The 48th Parliament will on Tuesday sit for the first time since the May 3 election. Albanese holds a record 94 seats in the House of Representatives after trouncing the Coalition 55-45 on a two-party preferred basis. At the election, the Coalition's primary vote dropped almost four percentage points to 31.8 per cent. The Resolve poll shows its primary support has fallen another three points to just 29 per cent – its lowest level since early 2023. Most of that drop has flowed to One Nation, with Labor's primary vote increasing marginally to 35 per cent. It secured 34.6 per cent at the May election. On a two-party preferred level, based on preferences as nominated by the 2311 people who took part in the poll, Labor leads the Coalition 56-44. Resolve Strategic director Jim Reed said the Coalition was now in 'real strife', arguing that while the party needed a primary vote in the 40s to be competitive, it was struggling to get into the 30s. However, he cautioned that Albanese was not enjoying the honeymoon he had following the 2022 election, when Labor's primary vote regularly reached 42 per cent.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Chinese political bribery scandal that's rattling Europe
While prosecutors in Brussels did not name those charged, media reports have identified some members of parliament – known as MEPs – and their staff. The payments reported, however, appeared relatively modest. One report said more than €45,000 ($81,000) was transferred to a lobbyist and this was used to pay €6,700 to a member of parliament and about €16,000 to aides. Transparency International EU director Nick Aiossa said the charges demonstrated the lack of action in the parliament to stop corruption. 'The allegations that have been reported upon certainly point to a potential complex corruption scheme involving MEPs, their staff, Huawei and other legal entities,' he told this masthead. In a setback for prosecutors, Italian MEP Giusi Princi went public this month about claims by prosecutors that she attended a dinner with Huawei in Brussels in June last year. She was not an MEP at that time and was in her home region of Calabria on the date of the dinner, attending an event with her daughter. Loading 'To this day I cannot understand how they could have made such a blatant mistake,' Princi told Agence France-Presse. That mistake raised questions about whether Belgian prosecutors had their facts right – or whether the case should be investigated instead by stronger EU authorities. Huawei has insisted in statements over several months that it had a 'zero-tolerance policy toward corruption or other wrongdoing' and was complying with the law. Several of the politicians who put their names to the 2021 letter have told the media they received no payments from the company. Xi Jinping will host von der Leyen in Beijing on Thursday to mark 50 years of diplomatic recognition – the EU's predecessor recognised mainland China in 1975, 2½ years after Australia did the same – but against the backdrop of rising tensions. Von der Leyen has warned against China using its vast production capacity to flood markets and ruin competitors, and says it denies fair access to its market for EU companies. 'China is running the largest trade surplus in the history of humankind. Its trade surplus with our Union has surpassed €300 billion last year. And this is while it is getting harder and harder for European companies to do business in China,' she told legislators on July 9. The major dispute between the two sides, however, is Ukraine, because of China's economic support for Russia and the supply of Chinese technologies that find their way into Russian weapons. 'China's unyielding support for Russia is creating heightened instability and insecurity here in Europe,' von der Leyen said. 'We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy. We cannot accept this.' The lobbying concerns in Brussels are not only about Chinese influence but the broader question of ethics in parliament after an earlier uproar over payments from Qatar. Dubbed Qatargate and seen as the biggest scandal of its kind in decades, the affair began with allegations the Gulf state paid members of parliament to curry favour in Brussels. While some MEPs have been charged, the case has not been decided in court. Corporate Europe Observatory, a non-profit campaign group, has named Huawei as one of the top tech lobbyists in Brussels, with a budget of more than €2 million and 11 full-time lobbyists, according to its own declarations. 'We already have a transparency register at the EU level that repressive regime lobbyists easily bypass because it is weak, voluntary, and poorly enforced,' it said, naming China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Aiossa, from Transparency International, said the European Union had made some progress on transparency, for instance by disclosing meetings between lobbyists and politicians, but was failing on ethics. Loading 'The Huawei case is crucially important because it demonstrates that the European Parliament needs to have much stronger and robust integrity and anti-corruption frameworks in place to prevent these scandals,' he said. 'There was a moment in the wake of Qatargate when they could have been brave and brought forward ambitious reforms. They didn't do it, which has led to the current Huawei scandal.'
