Beijing rolled out the red carpet for the Australian leader this week and the two sides appeared to keep a lid on tensions.

A month after US President Donald Trump cancelled talks with Anthony Albanese, China rolled out the red carpet for the Australian leader this week.

In Beijing, he had a two-hour meeting with President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People. Albanese’s fiancee, Jodie Haydon, joined the lunch that followed.

He held separate talks with Premier Li Qiang, and they co-chaired a CEO round table attended by nearly 30 Chinese and Australian business executives. At the banquet hosted by Li that evening, a band played iconic Australian anthems including “a different version of Paul Kelly’s ‘To Her Door’, of Midnight Oil’s ‘Power and the Passion’”, Albanese later told reporters.

The Australian prime minister also visited Shanghai and Chengdu on a six-day trip that shed light on Canberra’s approach to navigating great power rivalry after a reset in relations with Beijing.

It showed how Australia is trying to maintain ties with China – its largest trading partner – and the alliance with the United States, while side-stepping thornier issues such as Beijing’s military activities and Taiwan.

“Australia’s predicament is not unusual in the region,” said James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

“I think there remains utility in Canberra’s approach. The economic equities in relations with China and security equities in relations with the US are so large that making a binary choice is simply not realistic.”

Laurenceson said Labor’s landslide re-election in May had bolstered the confidence of Albanese and his government to maintain that approach.

“I do not foreshadow any significant policy shifts following the trip,” he said. “But what has been demonstrated is a stiffening of Canberra’s spine in the face of noisy right-wing domestic critics and pressure from Washington.”

Throughout the high-profile trip, Albanese stressed the importance of Australia’s relationship with China, telling Xi on Tuesday that his government would “continue to approach it in a calm and consistent manner guided by our national interest”.

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said that would likely lead to more stable ties.

“Policy consistency will ensure the stability of Australia’s future China policy,” he said. “Therefore, at least during Albanese’s current term, China-Australia relations will continue to remain stable and steadily improve, with potential progress in certain areas.”

Sensitive issues did cast a shadow over Albanese’s China visit – his second as prime minister – including Taiwan, military activities near Australia, and the port of Darwin that was leased to a Chinese company for 99 years in 2015 and Canberra has vowed to take back on national security grounds.

However, the two sides appeared to keep a lid on tensions, which could also reflect Beijing’s efforts to stabilise ties with major trading partners, including US allies in the region, to counter pressure from Washington.

According to Albanese, the Darwin Port issue was not mentioned during this week’s discussions, nor did the Chinese leader raise a Financial Times report last Saturday that the Pentagon was pressing Japan and Australia on their roles in the event of a war between the US and China over Taiwan.

Later, when asked if he had affirmed Australia’s opposition to “Taiwan independence”, as stated in the Chinese readout of his meeting with Xi, Albanese reiterated the country’s long-standing and bipartisan support for preserving the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.

Albanese also told reporters that when he had complained about a Chinese navy live-fire drill off the Australian coast, “President Xi said that China engaged in exercises, just as Australia engages in exercises”.

Chen said Australia was likely to maintain its long-standing commitment to the alliance with the US in the near future. “But the Trump administration’s ‘America first’ doctrine and its instrumentalisation of allies and partners are leading many traditional allies to reflection,” he said.

“Australia is also expected to act in its own national interest, avoiding excessive strategic alignment with the United States.” Still, pressure from the US appears to be ramping up.

Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday, citing sources, that John Noh, deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia, was on an Indo-Pacific tour that included a stop in Sydney to talk about the US-Australia alliance and the Aukus security partnership that aims to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines with support from the US and the UK. The pact is under review by the Trump administration to see if it aligns with the “America first” agenda.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how Beijing and Canberra can overcome security concerns that have worsened since People’s Liberation Army warships conducted a drill in waters between Australia and New Zealand in February. Australian officials said the live-fire drill caused the diversion of nearly 50 commercial flights.

According to a Pew Research Centre survey of 32,000 adults from the world’s six populated continents between January 8 and April 26, Australia was one of only three countries – together with the US and Japan – that sees China as the top threat.

Even as the leaders of China and Australia pledged to increase engagement, there was no mention of defence or maritime affairs talks in the joint statement released after Albanese’s meeting with Li.

The two sides held a defence strategic dialogue in Beijing in February, about a week before the PLA Navy exercise. Laurenceson in Sydney noted that Albanese and Li had agreed to reinstate the dialogue last year and said he expected it to continue.

Meanwhile, Australian defence chief Pat Conroy on Monday said the activities and presence of Chinese surveillance ships near Australia were being closely monitored as the nation hosts a biennial exercise with the US. This year’s Talisman Sabre exercise is the biggest ever, with 19 nations taking part.

“The Chinese military has observed these exercises since 2017. It’d be very unusual for them not to observe it,” Conroy told the ABC. Chen noted that, according to the joint statement, Beijing and Canberra agreed to build on law enforcement cooperation to fight crime including counter-narcotics, transnational and organised crime, and cyber-telecoms scams.

“The two countries need to enhance interactions and communication to advance security cooperation, building upon strengthened mutual trust,” he said.

Republished from The South China Morning Post, 19 July 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.