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When Chinese diplomats get pushy · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Wednesday, June nineteenth.
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  Speaker 1: Peter Dutton will today announced nuclear reactors will be Commonwealth
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  Speaker 1: owned and operated as critical national infrastructure if he is
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  Speaker 1: elected Prime Minister. And today at the Australian's Energy Nation Forum,
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  Speaker 1: Treasurer Jim Chalmers will seek to allay fears about giant
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  Speaker 1: renewable projects, saying community benefit will be at the heart
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  Speaker 1: of the government's future Made in Australia policy. Anthony Albanezi
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  Speaker 1: has scrambled to recover from a diplomatic disaster after Chinese
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  Speaker 1: and Australian officials engaged in a physical encounter at Federal Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: It was all about the presence of a journalist China
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  Speaker 1: doesn't like. In today's episode, what the scuffle was all
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  Speaker 1: about and what now for the China relationship. Can you
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  Speaker 1: hear this?
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  Speaker 2: You must through college class bread.
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  Speaker 1: This is an Australian official. A woman wearing a black
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  Speaker 1: suit jacket with her hair in a bun whispering at
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  Speaker 1: a Chinese diplomat in Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.
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  Speaker 1: The Australian says, you are standing in front of my
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  Speaker 1: Australian colleague. You must move. The Chinese official, a man
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  Speaker 1: wearing a blue suit, completely ignores the request. The Australian
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  Speaker 1: grabs his shoulder and tries to pull him backwards. China's
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  Speaker 1: man doesn't budge. It's like the Australian official does not exist.
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  Speaker 1: This is the start of a stunning piece of geopolitics
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  Speaker 1: playing out in the main committee room of our Parliament House.
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  Speaker 1: At the front of the room of politicians, including Australia's
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  Speaker 1: Prime Minister Anthony Alberanezi and Chinese Premier Lee.
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  Speaker 3: Chung, there are five documents to be signed today.
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  Speaker 1: They're signing agreements. They're called memoranda of understanding between our
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  Speaker 1: two countries. There are lots of flunkies bustling back and
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  Speaker 1: forth with pens and pieces of paper.
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  Speaker 3: The document will be signed by mister Leo Suscher, Vice
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  Speaker 3: Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, and the
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  Speaker 3: Honorable Jim Chalmers, Treasurer.
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  Speaker 1: This official visit is a big deal in thawing this
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  Speaker 1: relationship that has been icy cold for the past four years.
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  Speaker 1: The media and officials have been seated at the back
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  Speaker 1: of the room. To their left, there's a bank of
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  Speaker 1: cameras you will have seen on TV news, the kind
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  Speaker 1: of pan shots camera operators love. They focus on one
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  Speaker 1: area then move across to another. In this case, there
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  Speaker 1: was a great shot to be had Premier Lee at
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  Speaker 1: the front of the room and panning to the back
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  Speaker 1: of the room. One of the journalists in particular, that
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  Speaker 1: journalist is Chung Lay, the Chinese born Australian citizen who
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  Speaker 1: until last year was imprisoned in China. China claimed Chung
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  Speaker 1: had broken an embargo on a news report on Chinese
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  Speaker 1: TV by a few minutes, but her three years in
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  Speaker 1: prison came as Australia's relationship with China went seriously sour
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  Speaker 1: thanks to China's umbridge. At Scott Morrison's suggestion they had
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  Speaker 1: questions to answer about the origins of COVID nineteen. Australia
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  Speaker 1: applied pressure at the highest level Albanesi and Foreign Minister
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  Speaker 1: Pennywong directly raising Chung's case with China, and she was
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  Speaker 1: released last year. Chung Lay is now colleague of ours
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  Speaker 1: working at Sky News Australia. And back to that crazy
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  Speaker 1: scene in Canberra. The Chinese official, whom some media have
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  Speaker 1: named as Thomas, is standing in front of miss Chung
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  Speaker 1: to prevent the cameras getting that great panning shot. Chung
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  Speaker 1: and Premier Lee in the same room. Another Chinese official
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  Speaker 1: joins him, a woman in a brown jacket, and she
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  Speaker 1: also refuses to move when asked, so Chung Lei moves
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  Speaker 1: down a few seats and Thomas and the brown jacket
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  Speaker 1: lady come around and try to block her again, but
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  Speaker 1: the Australian diplomat and another Australian official get in their way,
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  Speaker 1: squashing up like Sardine's, forming a kind of human shield
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  Speaker 1: in front of Chung Lei to stop her being obstructed. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the Chinese officials push the Australians trying to get past them,
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  Speaker 1: and now it's the Australian's turn to pretend they don't exist.
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  Speaker 4: I thought, no way, it can't be as bad as
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  Speaker 4: it sounds from the headline. And then I watched the video,
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  Speaker 4: and I mean I was laughing, to be honest, I
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  Speaker 4: just couldn't believe what I was watching.
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  Speaker 1: Will Glasgow is the Australian's North Asia correspondent.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, if anything, the more you think about it
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  Speaker 4: and reflect on it, it's just completely woful that happened
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  Speaker 4: in Australia's Federal Parliament as the Premiere of China was
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  Speaker 4: signing memorandums of understanding with Australia's cabinet ministers about mutual understanding,
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  Speaker 4: mutual respect and apparently the Australia China relationship being back
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  Speaker 4: on track.
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  Speaker 1: What's incredible in this interaction is that these diplomats diplomats
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  Speaker 1: are pushing and pulling each other. This just does not happen,
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  Speaker 1: not in any normal business meeting, and definitely not in
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  Speaker 1: the careful, etiquette soaked world of international diplomacy, where even
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  Speaker 1: the way you hand over a business card is laden
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  Speaker 1: with significance. So I asked, Will, is there a different
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  Speaker 1: context which we should be looking at this? Are we
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  Speaker 1: missing something from a Chinese perspective?
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  Speaker 4: I wouldn't get bogged down in Chinese cultural reasons for
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  Speaker 4: explaining this. This is a Chinese Communist Party cultural practice.
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  Speaker 4: I'm speaking to you from Taipei. That wouldn't happen here, right,
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  Speaker 4: Chinese Australians culturally don't behave like that, and look, I
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  Speaker 4: should be frank. I've met and spoke to those Chinese officials.
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  Speaker 4: When I've met with them, they're very polite people. I've
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  Speaker 4: never left any of my exchangees with them thinking gosh,
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  Speaker 4: how rude was that person. Far from it. I've had
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  Speaker 4: the entirely opposite experience with them. But they're officials who
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  Speaker 4: work for the People's Republic of China. They represented overseas.
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  Speaker 4: The People's Republic of China is run by a one
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  Speaker 4: party lenin Estate, the Chinese Communist Party, and their premier
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  Speaker 4: was in the room, and Chung Li is someonhen they
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  Speaker 4: put in prison for years. They accused her of espionage,
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  Speaker 4: that's the official view in China, and they thought it
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  Speaker 4: was outrageous to see her in the room. They think
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  Speaker 4: it's provocative, it's offensive. They think it could be embarrassing
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  Speaker 4: to their leader and set of acting on what they've
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  Speaker 4: been told by higher ups to do.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what Anthony Albanezi said about it at a press
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  Speaker 1: conference on Monday afternoon, directly after this happened.
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  Speaker 5: Well, I didn't see that. I saw Chang Lay and
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  Speaker 5: we smiled at each other during.
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  Speaker 1: During the event.
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  Speaker 5: Look, I'm not aware of those issues. It's important that
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  Speaker 5: people be allowed to participate fully and that's what should
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  Speaker 5: happen in this building or anywhere else in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Chang Ley herself didn't want to be the story here.
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  Speaker 1: She is on Sky News.
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  Speaker 6: Well, I wanted to get away from the guy who
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  Speaker 6: was standing next to me, and I think the worry
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  Speaker 6: is that my being there is a symbol of some sort.
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  Speaker 6: Maybe they didn't want that for the domestic audience, that's
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  Speaker 6: a guess. But like you said, we don't want this
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  Speaker 6: incident to a shadow the rest of the visit, which
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  Speaker 6: is the real news. Yeah, it's enough of a circus
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  Speaker 6: without me being the sideshow.
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  Speaker 1: She was empathetic to the Prime Minister's office.
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  Speaker 6: Well, what I know is that they've been working like
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  Speaker 6: crazy and I can having dealt with Chinese officialdom on
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  Speaker 6: these sorts of events and not even as important.
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  Speaker 1: It's these ones.
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  Speaker 6: They are very, very control freakish, so they want to
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  Speaker 6: know everything and they want to stage manage everything.
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  Speaker 1: As the trip moved to Perth, Albanezi realized his reaction
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  Speaker 1: had been too muted, and he hit the airwaves. Nathan
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  Speaker 1: Nat and Sean the local breakfast show on Nov. Ninety
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  Speaker 1: three point seven, Alvo Hello, good morning, Albanezy wanted to
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  Speaker 1: fix the previous days stumble but in a friendly environment.
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  Speaker 3: Why are you in the studio with us?
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  Speaker 4: If you're in sir.
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  Speaker 7: Oh, I'm in trouble.
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  Speaker 1: There was a lot of laughing about pandas, and then
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  Speaker 1: Albanizie was asked, how is negotiating the relationship with China.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, we have a really strong relationship with them, but
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  Speaker 4: also keep them honest.
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  Speaker 7: By being straightforward, by raising the issues that we have
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  Speaker 7: with China in a deliberate but a clear way as well.
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  Speaker 7: There's no point shaking your fist. It's important that what
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  Speaker 7: you do is to indicate the differences that we have.
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  Speaker 7: We have different values in different political systems, and we
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  Speaker 7: saw some of that yesterday. I've got to say with
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  Speaker 7: the attempt that was pretty ham fisted to block Cheng Lai,
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  Speaker 7: the Australian journalists who were able to get brought home
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  Speaker 7: at the press conference, and there was a clumsy attempt
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  Speaker 7: really to just stand in between where the cameras were
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  Speaker 7: and Chang Lay and the Australian officials did the right
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  Speaker 7: thing and intervened.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it obviously was not something he wanted to dominate
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  Speaker 4: with that press conference. However, his non response actually just
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  Speaker 4: if anything, amplified the story. I mean, the footage is
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  Speaker 4: the footage, and the behavior is the behavior, right, But
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  Speaker 4: then compounding it is the Australian Prime Minister trying to
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  Speaker 4: wish it away himself. Is he being honest about not
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  Speaker 4: knowing or is he being deceptive about not knowing to
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  Speaker 4: try to not hurt the feelings of the visiting Chinese leader.
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  Speaker 4: I think that clarity today, with not having to make
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  Speaker 4: that decision on his feet, and that press conference and
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  Speaker 4: speaking to his team, and probably seeing today's front pages
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  Speaker 4: of our newspaper and others, and hearing the media coverage
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  Speaker 4: of it on television and radio. The majority of Australian
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  Speaker 4: public seems to be appalled by what happened, and I
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  Speaker 4: think today was about making sure he responded to that.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout the day, Albanezy got more strident.
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  Speaker 2: I met with Chang Lai after we helped to secure
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  Speaker 2: her coming home. She visited me in Parliament House in
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  Speaker 2: my office, and she's a very decent human being and
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  Speaker 2: a very professional journalist. And there should be no impediments
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  Speaker 2: to Australian journalists going about their job, and we're made
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  Speaker 2: that clear to the Chinese embassy.
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  Speaker 1: And now Albanesi's gone even further, calling the encounter rude
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  Speaker 1: and entirely inappropriate. The work of Penny Wong Anthony Albanesi
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  Speaker 1: to get Chang Lei back to Australia. One interpretation of
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  Speaker 1: that from the Chinese point of view could be that
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  Speaker 1: she had served her time for the offense that she
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  Speaker 1: had allegedly committed of breaching an embargo, and that she
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  Speaker 1: went back to Australia, presumably never to return. What does
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  Speaker 1: this encounter tell us about the way the Chinese administration
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  Speaker 1: actually thinks about Chang Lei and the release of her.
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  Speaker 1: Does this tell us that they think they've been humiliated
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  Speaker 1: in some way?
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  Speaker 4: I think Chang Lai goes in a very large bucket
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  Speaker 4: of things they just want to kind of disappear away.
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  Speaker 4: She's a very inconvenient fact, just like the existence of
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  Speaker 4: the lobster ban, right which they won't even acknowledge that
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  Speaker 4: that's ever happened, but it's very real. No live lobster's
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  Speaker 4: been allowed and legally for more than four years. It's
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  Speaker 4: real that happened. You know, there are so many things
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  Speaker 4: that are real points of tension in this relationship. But
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  Speaker 4: for China, they wanted the messaging of this to be
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  Speaker 4: that the relationship's back on track. That requires a kind
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  Speaker 4: of disappearing and and overlooking of a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 4: very real problems in this relationship and our political system.
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  Speaker 4: We have a liberal democracy with a free press, and
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  Speaker 4: they would say they're creating a positive environment right now,
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  Speaker 4: positive sentiment towards Australia ahead of this trip. They wouldn't
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  Speaker 4: allow this kind of thing to happen, that's true, But
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  Speaker 4: you know, our systems, our system.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. What everyone missed while this strange diplomatic scuffle
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  Speaker 1: was happening. Our subscribers at the Australian get access to
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  Speaker 1: this kind of in depth analysis twenty four to seven.
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  Speaker 1: Check us out at the Australian dot com dot au
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  Speaker 1: and we'll be back after this break. What was going
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  Speaker 1: on at the front of the room while this strange
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  Speaker 1: pushing and shoving was going on at the back, was
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  Speaker 1: the signing of five memoranda of understanding with China on
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  Speaker 1: everything from education to trade. Now we don't know a
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  Speaker 1: lot of details about those memoranda will but what does
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  Speaker 1: it mean that they've been signed, and how does the
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  Speaker 1: detail come out?
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  Speaker 4: Now we've been told that details will come out after
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  Speaker 4: Premier League gets on a plane and leaves the country, right.
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  Speaker 4: And it's sort of another epitome of the weirdness of
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  Speaker 4: this relationship, right. I mean we're sort of meant to
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  Speaker 4: repull in on it like it's significant, but we don't
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  Speaker 4: know what's in there, right, And I mean I will
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  Speaker 4: go out ahead of seeing them and just predict they'll
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  Speaker 4: be very very little of substance in there, right. I
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  Speaker 4: would expect under all the different themes, there'll be commitments
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  Speaker 4: for the whatever round of talks on this or that,
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  Speaker 4: exploratory meetings to create this or that dialogue. It's kind
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  Speaker 4: of a make work exercise. There's a certain amount of
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  Speaker 4: just doing the theater of Australian China relations. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: we do have shared interests in a bunch of different areas,
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  Speaker 4: different economic areas particularly, but the cultural areas and other things,
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  Speaker 4: and so you know, it's not like we don't have
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  Speaker 4: things to talk about. But I would expect that those
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  Speaker 4: MOUs will be very much at the fledgling stage of everything.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, this whole trip underlines the profound distrust
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  Speaker 4: that exists between Australia and China still, and I mean
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  Speaker 4: all those MoU on whatever topic, they're going to have
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  Speaker 4: to navigate extreme distrust between the two rights. So they're
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  Speaker 4: only going to be possible if they don't require much
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  Speaker 4: from each side.
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  Speaker 1: Will Glasgow is The Australian's North Asia correspondent. It's a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: big day for the Australian. We're hosting our Energy Nation
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Forum in Sydney, with the Government, opposition and business coming
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  Speaker 1: together to discuss the big issue of our moment, how
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: to keep the lights on as we transition to a
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: new energy economy. You can follow it live at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au and we'll be back tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: with all the news.