Panda-monium and press freedom: What we learned from Albanese's six days in China

SBS Australia

7 days ago

It was in the heart of Beijing's old city, with the famous drum and bell towers looming over the travelling media, that the smiling eyes of the pandas were replaced briefly by raw local anger. The interaction, as Australian journalists were filming their reports of Anthony Albanese's visit to China, underscored a regular refrain from the prime minister that the two nations have "different systems". Australia and China certainly have very different views of press freedom. Australia is a democracy and China has a one-party autocracy. In Australia, we have the right to record media reports in public spaces; in China, local authorities can call the police and demand that footage be deleted.
The incident occurred despite journalists having written permission in English and Mandarin from the Chinese Foreign Ministry allowing us to film in Beijing.
After the diplomatic intervention of Beijing-based Australian government representatives, our group was able to depart on a bus without any contact with police or having to remove any footage we had collected. But at one point the leader of the local officials was shouting with his face distorted by fury, warning that we should not try leave, and that the police were on their way. As far as diplomatic incidents go, this one was relatively small-scale, and Chinese-based foreign media are used to such skirmishes, but it was a thorn in an otherwise charmed week of cultural exchange between the Australian and Chinese leaders.
SBS has been told it was noted in Canberra and was considered out of step with expectations about how the Australian media would be treated during the visit.
It wasn't the only time press expectations were limited. Inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Australia's reporting contingent was preparing for the critical engagement of the campaign: the direct handshake between Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But the photographers from Australian Associated Press and Nine Newspapers were held back and only the official Australian government photographer was allowed to enter.
SBS World News ran the government-issued photo but always prefers to use the journalism, both written and visual, that comes from our colleagues — especially if they've flown halfway across the world to capture it.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping prior to their bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Source: AAP / Huang Jingwen/AP Reporters were able to freely capture many other moments of the trip: the prime minister and his fiancée Jodie Haydon strolling on the Shanghai Bund with local football players, walking a cordoned off area of the Great Wall of China mulling its extraordinary history and joking about looking for a celebrant, meeting with aspiring Chinese tennis players in Chengdu, and waving at giant pandas in a local sanctuary.
The pictures were making their way to the Australian audience and to many tens of millions in China, not to mention the global audience that is hungry for contact between world leaders and China in this potential turning point in world history.
But the formal meetings with President Xi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang were considered the trip's key serious moments of statecraft. While Albanese did raise the flotilla of Chinese warships that circumnavigated the Australian coast earlier this year, he didn't get any clear assurances that there would be more notice of the ventures in future. Instead, he reported back that China intended to continue to move in international waters when required, as Australia does in contested waters off the Chinese coast. Albanese's closest supporters in Australia say the approach has been overly diplomatic and China reads it as weak. They also warn it's akin to being bullied by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Again, Albanese had no assurances to provide about Dr Yang's future.
According to high level government sources, the Port of Darwin fracas was not formally raised, though state media outlets were making no secret of its potential to be a sticking point. Meanwhile, some in Washington seemed willing to make mischief while the prime minister was on Chinese soil. Attempting to force Australia to show its hand was a bit rich for the Pentagon, which deliberately doesn't say how it would approach any Chinese attempts to envelope Taiwan into the Chinese mainland. Albanese characterised the Taiwan section of the private bilateral talks with President Xi as reaffirming the status quo. "What we do is continue to support a One China policy. We support the status quo, by definition we don't support any unilateral action on Taiwan," he said while standing on the Great Wall of China.
But Beijing's initial take was stronger.
"Albanese reaffirmed Australia's commitment to the One China policy and its opposition to 'Taiwan Independence'," it read. Later, an online version of the Chinese readout was amended to say: "he (Albanese) assured Xi that Australia adheres to the One China policy and does not support 'Taiwan Independence'". In signs considered positive for the personal relationship, the prime minister was treated to a private lunch with President Xi.
He also attended a dinner banquet hosted by Premier Li, which included performances by Chinese musicians of Australian songs by Paul Kelly, Powderfinger and Midnight Oil.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited pandas in a sanctuary in Chengdu during his second official visit to China. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch On trade, an issue that underpinned the whole visit, both countries spoke proudly about having open markets and the importance of trading ties, rhetoric that seemed pointed at the chaos emanating from the White House.
There was discussion about how Australia is meeting the challenges of climate change and moving to promote green steel production, as the budget-boosting iron ore industry gets increasingly jittery about high-level ore mines in Africa that are coming online and could be competitive soon.
Panda-monium Pandas are the diplomatic panacea China liberally applies across the world in countries where it's trying to soften its image. Panda-mania is understatement when it comes to the Western China city of Chengdu. From the shape of the bus stops to street sculptures and shop fronts (no matter what is being sold inside), the giant panda is omnipresent with no end of creative ways to incorporate this brand ambassador into the architecture and art of the city.
The demise of the panda population has come as the booming Chinese economy has fuelled urban sprawl and encroached on the habitat of the world-renowned bears.
Now only a couple of thousand remain in the wild and attempts to breed more are thwarted by the tiny breeding window of only three days a year. Pandas are revered and in the 40 degree Chengdu heat some tourists noted that they felt their hearts melting as they saw them for the first time among the bamboo in the enclosures at the sanctuary. This is exactly the kind of feverish adulation Albanese is keen to attach himself to, personally choosing to make the city a two-day element of this China tour.
Pandas are viral magic on social media, and the audience for these images isn't just Australian; the pictures were also broadcast on Chinese state television.
'Slow living' diplomacy The Opposition said the whole trip appeared to become "indulgent" and worried it looked too cosy with the CCP, but Albanese embraces "slow living" when it comes to diplomacy. He walked a section of the Kokoda Track with PNG leader James Marape last year. In 2022, he chose to go beyond Bali and visited Makassar in Sulawesi with then Indonesian President Joko Widodo. In June, he chose to stopover on a trip to the US in Fiji and have dinner with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, rather than the standard fly-by Hawaii refuelling option to save time. With such a buoyant majority in the lower house, this approach isn't likely to change dramatically in the short term.
It's often the tightness of the polls that makes leaders anxious about being perceived to be more focused on international jetsetting than the plight of their constituents.
The Australian diplomatic advice is that having a personal relationship means world leaders can pick up the phone to avoid misunderstandings, particularly on the military front, meaning the deterrence-based arms build-up in the region can be calibrated rather than keeping the Indo-Pacific on edge and fearing conflict. Although many key engagements have been ticked off Albanese's foreign policy to-do list, one giant item remains unresolved: the first face to face meeting with the commander-in-chief of Australia's most important security ally. Whether it happens at a meeting of Quad leaders in India, the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the G20 in South Africa or on an official visit to Washington, it's highly unlikely Australian press photographers would be barred from that official handshake. What happens after Albanese and Donald Trump grip and grin for the first time is the prime minister's biggest diplomatic test to come.