
Shanghai is coming back as a destination city and on this visit by Prime Minister Albanese he will be made very welcome by his Chinese hosts as well as those Australians who have persevered doing their business in China during the dark days of Covid and those incredibly difficult bilateral tensions.
There was quite a change to the nature of life in Shanghai during those three strange Covid years. It wasn’t just the precautions to avoid the virus, the severe lockdowns, the constant RAT and PCR testing or the need to show a green QR code to get access to any building or facility when we weren’t locked down. These were all incredible intrusions on how this society operated and we will never forget those days. Even though they now live in the memory as some strange existence where time now seems to have been frozen and we have now emerged from a three-year hibernation.
The vibrance of Shanghai has been in large part due to its place in the world as a destination city. Visitors didn’t pass through Shanghai, they came here. And for three years this destination city’s door had been closed tight and it changed the nature of Shanghai. Now that the door has been open for ten months, Shanghai is back and there is now a steady stream of businesspeople who haven’t seen their operations for at least three years, of politicians from all corners of the world with delegations in tow, of young students including New Colombo Plan scholars seeking internships and others. The old vibrancy is coming back.
Among these calling on Shanghai will be Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in early November. Thank goodness. It was April 2016 when we last saw an Australian PM in Shanghai. On that occasion Malcolm Turnbull hosted a lunch overlooking the Huangpu River for 2000 people before skipping off to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping. It was a whirlwind trip, as these things often are, and it was a centrepiece of a major event, the Australia Week in China. There had been an even bigger prime ministerial visit two years earlier by Tony Abbott, with each of the Premiers and Chief Ministers in tow. In an enthusiastic speech to another large lunch crowd, he praised China’s SOE’s, welcomed them as investors into Australia and looked forward to the completion of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA).
Abbott and Turnbull were preceded by meaningful visits from all of the Australian PMs from Whitlam, to Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd and Gillard and had their moments of much significance in Australia’s relationship with China. When Howard visited Jiang Zemin in Shanghai in 2001 one ton of Australian iron ore was selling at $US18 compared to today’s price of about $US120 per ton. China’s demand for iron ore and other commodities has delivered wealth to Australia beyond the expectations of Howard and his traveling party 22 years ago.
Ten years ago I visited Malcolm Fraser to invite him to Shanghai to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Whitlam prime ministerial visit. By way of introduction, I showed Fraser a photo of him being greeted by children in Urumuqi in Xinjiang province. It’s a beautiful photo of a man famous for his implacable Easter Island visage, but on this occasion his arms are outstretched, his face is beaming and you could imagine his heart bursting out of his chest. Fraser looked at the photo and said that he had not been made more welcome anywhere else in the world and went on to say “what can I do for you”. He made arrangements to come to Shanghai but sadly he did not get there.
Scott Morrison never came to Shanghai as PM, but did make a visit soon after becoming Treasurer. He is the only Australian Prime Minister since the establishment of diplomatic relations with China to have not come to Shanghai or any other Chinese city as PM. Perhaps he regards that as a matter of pride.
But the deterioration in the bilateral relationship that Morrison oversaw had left serious diplomatic repair work for Anthony Albanese and his Foreign Minister Penny Wong; expertly described recently on these pages by Geoff Raby.
And at last, we are about to see an Australian Prime Minister back in Shanghai. For Australians living in China this is most welcome and an important step in the restoration of Australia/China relations. Being on the 50th anniversary, almost to the day, of Whitlam’s visit, the historical link adds some icing to the welcome-back cake. The visit will also coincide with one of Xi Jinping’s pet projects, the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and it is hoped that Albanese will pay a visit there and see for himself the impressive show of Australian business on display at CIIE. There are many mighty Australian companies and organisations doing terrific business in China in this enormous market. That has been in spite of the gale-like headwinds created by Albanese’s predecessor.
Foreign Minister Wong has often remarked that the first goal has been to stabilise the relationship and all the signs are that the stability is returning. She has also tempered expectations by saying that the relationship will not go back to where it was. Some might regard that as being realistic, but on the other hand the question to her could be why can’t we get back to where we were and make it even better?
Shanghai is coming back as a destination city and on this visit by Prime Minister Albanese he will be made very welcome by his Chinese hosts as well as those Australians who have persevered doing their business in China during the dark days of Covid and in the midst of those incredibly difficult bilateral tensions.
In business, nothing beats face to face dialogue to get stuff done and since the start of this year there has been a parade of senior businesspeople coming to Shanghai to see customers, suppliers and importantly staff on the ground. One-on-one meetings between political leaders from Australia and China are long overdue. Let’s look forward to Albanese and the Chinese leadership having constructive dialogue while he is China and that they likewise get stuff done.