Whitlam, Nixon, Albanese: PM uses Great Wall to place himself in history
Loading
'We don't shout with a megaphone,' he remarked, referring to his predecessor Scott Morrison's confrontational diplomatic style that drew China's ire.
If chumminess is the name of the game, China knew which buttons to press when Albanese came to town.
The pub-rock-loving PM was treated to Chinese covers of Powderfinger, Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil at dinner in Beijing's Great Hall on Tuesday.
Power and the Passion was the Oils' song played, according to Albanese. The lyrics from the activist band's hit are pro-Whitlam and make jabs at 'Uncle Sam' and the Pine Gap intelligence facility – all made in the context of paranoia around the US' role in Whitlam's 1975 dismissal.
Albanese and Xi were splashed on page one of the China Daily, a state media publication. Russia's foreign minister, who met Xi on the same day as the PM, was relegated to page three despite Russia's 'no limits' relationship with China.
'They did the full kit and caboodle. And so, it was a splendid occasion,' Albanese said.
It's hard to see how China's wooing of Albanese makes ambassador Kevin Rudd's job any easier in Washington as he works to preserve the AUKUS pact in talks with the China hawks in the Trump administration.
The Great Wall, usually jammed with tourists, was cleared for Albanese's visit. Freeways across Shanghai and Beijing were also closed off for the prime minister's motorcades, with Australian flags lining the streets.
Loading
After a short press conference – decked in his Rabbitohs cap and tennis shoes – Albanese went for a walk up the wall with a tour guide and his fiancee Jodie Haydon.
Once the money shot was in view, he took off his Ray-Bans, asked the guide and translator to move aside, shooed reporters and assorted hangers-on out of the way, cleared the path ahead of him for what he clearly expects will become an iconic photo in the same stretch of the wall as Whitlam.
Even while feeling the weight of history, Albanese had his nuptials on his mind after photographers captured the scenic shot.
'Anyone here a celebrant?' he asked with a smirk.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
Prime Minster Anthony Albanese's Palestine call with French President Emmanuel Macron branded 'performative politics'
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of "performative politics" over a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Mr Albanese spoke with the French leader following a huge protest in Sydney, which saw about 90,000 people march across the Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine. The French President is set to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September and will be joined in the gesture by United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Commenting on the call, The Australian's Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan said the Albanese government was demonstrating "really low-grade stuff" in relation to Palestine and the Middle East conflict. "They are not making any contribution to the Middle East at all. This is all about gesture and performative politics for their base in Australia and for managing the politics of the left in Australia," he told Sky News host Steve Price. "To recognise a Palestinian state without substantial negotiation with Israel, to recognise the Palestinian state as a direct result of the barbaric, unbelievable, epoch-marking, savage terrorism of October 7, is just futile and counterproductive. "It's a great reward for Hamas." Sheridan said he had been "quite critical" about Israel's conduct in Gaza in recent months, describing it as "futile" and having cost a "great deal internationally", but continued his rebuke of Mr Albanese for making "no useful contribution" to solving the humanitarian crisis. The journalist, though, said Mr Albanese had a "spasm of common sense" several weeks ago when he assigned conditions to any recognition of Palestine. "If those conditions are met, that's great, but if those conditions are not met the Albanese government says it's still going to recognise a Palestinian state anyway, because it says it is 'when, not if,'and its obviously doing it in concert with these other nations," Sheridan said, referring to remarks from Treasurer Jim Chlamers last week. "Now those conditions won't be met. The terrorist groups will still be attacking Israel, there won't an eradication of Hamas and all the rest of it. There won't be democratic reform... you can just bank on that. "This is all about gesture politics and the management of the left in Marrickville and Glebe and Richmond and what have you. It's got nothing at all to do with making any positive contribution in the Middle East and it is morally vacuous." Mr Chalmers' remarks came after Canada joined France and the UK in declaring their intention to recognise a Palestinian state, provided key conditions are met, including the exclusion of Hamas from any future leadership and the release of Israeli hostages. Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Canada would proceed with recognition by September, conditional on agreements from the West Bank's governing authority. Mr Chalmers welcomed the international developments and said the Albanese government was in ongoing talks with global counterparts to chart Australia's next steps. 'The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister will respond in due course, but I welcome this momentum and this progress in the international community,' Mr Chalmers told Sky News. 'From an Australian point of view the recognition of the state of Palestine is a matter of when not if."
AU Financial Review
2 hours ago
- AU Financial Review
UK demands China explain redacted parts of London embassy plan
London | British Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has demanded additional information from China over its plans for a new 'mega' embassy in London after several of the drawings contained areas that were blacked out. A letter sent by Rayner's housing department to the Chinese embassy said it must provide unredacted drawings of the plans or 'identify precisely and comprehensively' the parts that have been withheld, and 'explain the rationale and justification' for the blacked-out sections.
The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
The dissident award-winning artist keeping a close watch on China
In an upstairs room of a Collingwood gallery hangs a line of colourful prints on a wall. It's only when you look closely that you see small areas of damage, evidence of their role in a troubled recent past. Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao points to a scratch on one and steps back. 'Some of the frames are even broken', he explains, saying it was a deliberate choice to leave them this way. These works were originally slated for display in 2018 at a doomed exhibition in Hong Kong. They now open his first Australian solo show, Disagree Where We Must. One of the prints features Joshua Wong, a key figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. At the time it was created, Badiucao was working anonymously. But three days before the Hong Kong show was due to open, 'the Chinese government found out my identity and took my relatives into the police station, ' he says. In response, he cancelled his show. A year later he shed his anonymity and finally revealed his face and identity to the world. The scratches and dings, he explains, help tell the story of how this group of works was hurriedly removed and hidden in the months and years after the show was cancelled. The Shanghai-born Badiucao, who now lives in Australia, contributes to this masthead and is a Walkley Award winner for his cartoons, has always used his art to critique mainland China's government, its policies, and historical wrongs. This ethos is on full display in Disagree Where We Must. Held in Collingwood's Goldstone gallery, a space opened by artist Nina Sanadze this year, the exhibition takes its title from the Labor government's stated approach to China: 'We will co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, but engage in our national interest.' A room at the back of the space is devoted to a video that first screened on billboards in Hong Kong earlier this year in a test of the limits of free speech in the wake of the sweeping National Security Law implemented in 2020. In the four-second clip, Badiucao silently mouths the words 'you must take part in revolution'.
