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Pandastic news for China bond · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the front on your smart sneaker
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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 twelfth.
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  Speaker 1: A giant stink is broken out between two powerful Australian institutions,
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  Speaker 1: the AFL and the CFMU. The Construction Union's boss John
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  Speaker 1: Setka has told The Australian he's furious the Australian Football
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  Speaker 1: League has hired a former building watchdog as its new
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  Speaker 1: head of umpiring. Setka says the union will make misery
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  Speaker 1: for the Footy Code on its work sites. Queensland's labor
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  Speaker 1: government is throwing the kitchen sink at winning the next election,
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  Speaker 1: plunging the state into debt and deficit to bankroll an
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  Speaker 1: eleven point two billion dollar cost of living package in
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  Speaker 1: its new budget. That story is live right now at
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com. A police are preparing for potential
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  Speaker 1: clashes between pro and anti Chinese protesters when Premier Lee
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  Speaker 1: Chung visits Australia in coming days. Anthony Albanezi is hailing
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  Speaker 1: the trip as a restoration of Australia's bond with China
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  Speaker 1: and flagging some big news about two very special Chinese Australians.
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  Speaker 1: I think we should get a panda bear.
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  Speaker 2: You say that now, but I'm the one who's gonna
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  Speaker 2: end up feeding him and walking him.
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  Speaker 1: This is an episode of the turn of the century
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  Speaker 1: TV drama The West Wing. A political consultant named Mandy
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  Speaker 1: Hampton is discussing a matter of great political importance with
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  Speaker 1: the White House's Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman.
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  Speaker 2: You guys have gotten something more than three thousand letters
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  Speaker 2: in the last ten days.
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  Speaker 3: You wanted to know when we're getting the new bear
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  Speaker 3: for the National Zoo. What happened to the old bear? Lumlum.
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  Speaker 3: She died two weeks ago.
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  Speaker 1: Pandas are a big deal in international affairs. It's called
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  Speaker 1: panda diplomacy, and it's actually a pretty good way of
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  Speaker 1: gauging the temperature of China's geopolitical relationships. All the giant
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  Speaker 1: pandas on the planet technically belong to China. There are
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  Speaker 1: about two and a half thousand living in the wild
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  Speaker 1: and in captivity. China loans them out to zoos and
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  Speaker 1: conservation organizations Australia has Ju pandas on loan from China
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  Speaker 1: since two thousand and nine. They're called Wang Wog and
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  Speaker 1: Funi and they live at Adelaide Zoo. For a while
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  Speaker 1: there is Australia's relationship with China turned seriously toxic. Wang
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  Speaker 1: Wang and Funi looked likely to be hauled out at
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  Speaker 1: any moment, but Chinese Premier at Lee Chung is coming
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  Speaker 1: to Australia this weekend and his first stop is Adelaide.
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  Speaker 1: That's making China watches. I think things are looking up.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent.
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  Speaker 2: Look, China is very particular about its pandas. You don't
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  Speaker 2: get given pandas. They're always lent and they're a symbol
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  Speaker 2: of the strength of the bilateral relationship. I recall that
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  Speaker 2: Wang Wang and Funi were due to be returned to China,
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  Speaker 2: but their stay in Adelaide was extended after that visit
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  Speaker 2: by Anthony Albinezi to Beijing last November.
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  Speaker 1: The relationship has gone through some extremely tough times over
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  Speaker 1: the past few years. Ben, do you think there were
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  Speaker 1: ever considerations about taking the pandas back?
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  Speaker 2: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think that appeared to be the threat. They've
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  Speaker 3: been given a reprieve.
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  Speaker 2: There's been some panda diplomacy in the US recently as well,
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  Speaker 2: like the Koala, perhaps even more so than the Koala.
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  Speaker 2: The pandas are a symbol of China, and they're sort
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  Speaker 2: of greatly loved by the Chinese people, and to have
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  Speaker 2: them lean out to another is certainly in the Chinese eyes,
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  Speaker 2: a great honor for Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Lee Chung is the second most powerful figure in China
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  Speaker 1: after President Hijinping, who hasn't been here for a decade.
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  Speaker 1: Lee's visit is highly significant as China winds back savage
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  Speaker 1: trade sanctions it imposed after taking Umbridge at Scott Morrison's
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  Speaker 1: suggestions China was responsible for the COVID nineteen pandemic.
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  Speaker 2: Look, this is all part of the stabilization of the
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  Speaker 2: bilateral relationship since the Labor Party came back into office here.
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  Speaker 3: The next step may or may not be a visit
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  Speaker 3: from Hijinping.
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  Speaker 2: That one would be a much more sort of difficult
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  Speaker 2: prospect in terms of the sort of optics of such
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  Speaker 2: a visit. Public opinion has hardened substantially against China since
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  Speaker 2: the president was last in the country some ten years
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  Speaker 2: ago when he addressed the Australian Parliament. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: you have all the irritance and long standing problems in
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  Speaker 2: the relationship, including foreign interference, espionage, hacking, trade bands, human
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  Speaker 2: rights questions. There's so many issues on which Australia and
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  Speaker 2: China disagree these days, and also including ORCUST. It's really
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  Speaker 2: only designed with one adversary in mind, and that's China.
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  Speaker 2: The world has moved on a lot since Shi Jimping
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  Speaker 2: was last in Australia, so I wouldn't be expecting a
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  Speaker 2: visit by the President necessarily to follow this one. But
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  Speaker 2: certainly this visit does continue that process of sort of
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  Speaker 2: improvement in ties that labor has been very keen to
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  Speaker 2: do and with the support of the opposition. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the opposition does agree that it's a good thing that
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  Speaker 2: we are able to speak to our Chinese counterparts, but
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  Speaker 2: it still does have a much harder line on many
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  Speaker 2: of those key strategic issues.
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  Speaker 1: Adelaide's important for more than just adorable reasons. It's where
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Defense Force will build a fleet of nuclear
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  Speaker 1: submarines designed to supercharge our future defense efforts and as
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  Speaker 1: front listeners know China is seriously unimpressed by the Orcus
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  Speaker 1: submarine project and is making big military moves in international
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  Speaker 1: waters around Australia. Here's South Australian Premier Peter malinowskis talking
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  Speaker 1: about the subs, which are a long range stealth weapon
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  Speaker 1: designed to limit the threat from yep China.
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  Speaker 4: The nuclear submarine is the ultimate APEX predator. The moment
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  Speaker 4: a nuclear submarine enters the water, it immediately and fundamentally
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  Speaker 4: tilts the balance of power.
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  Speaker 1: The last visit by a senior Chinese leader was when
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  Speaker 1: Foreign Minister Wang Ye came here in March. Much that
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  Speaker 1: visit was notable for the inclusion of former Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Paul Keating, who held a meeting with one Ye, who
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  Speaker 1: of course is united with mister Keating on not being
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  Speaker 1: a fan of the Orchestra Defense Pact. Do you think
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  Speaker 1: anything of that note will happen this time or is
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  Speaker 1: this going to be much more sober and formal.
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  Speaker 3: Well.
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  Speaker 2: I think the government will be hoping that there's no
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  Speaker 2: sort of wild card sideline events planned by the Chinese,
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  Speaker 2: but you never can be too sure. I think that
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  Speaker 2: was quite embarrassing to the government. The Poorkeating meeting that
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  Speaker 2: really did sort of highlight some of China's criticisms of
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  Speaker 2: Australia's stance, using the very symbolic and powerful symbolism of
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  Speaker 2: Paul Keating to sort of amplify those complaints that they
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  Speaker 2: have about Australia's treatment of China.
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  Speaker 1: Your job, as I said, is Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent,
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  Speaker 1: Ben So that's the very delicate side of negotiations with
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  Speaker 1: another country like China, things like pandas, and it's also
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  Speaker 1: the very pointy part of it too. And in the
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  Speaker 1: defense area, Australia's had some quite serious moments with China
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  Speaker 1: of late. Can you tell us a little bit about those,
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  Speaker 1: what happened and what did they tell us about? Where
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  Speaker 1: the relationships.
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  Speaker 2: At China is quite aggressive in the South China Sea
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  Speaker 2: and other territorial waters close to China. So there's been
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  Speaker 2: a couple of recent incidents. The most recent one was
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  Speaker 2: in early May in which Chinese fighter jet dropped flares
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  Speaker 2: in front of Australian helicopter that was policing sanctions against North.
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  Speaker 3: Korea in the Yellow Sea.
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  Speaker 2: That was quite a dangerous encounter and the Australian helicopter
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  Speaker 2: was forced to sort of take evasive action. The other
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  Speaker 2: incident that many people will remember was the one in
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  Speaker 2: which a Chinese warship used its while some Australian divers
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  Speaker 2: were freeing fishing net from Hmas to Woomba. That was
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  Speaker 2: last year in the South China Sea, and those divers
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  Speaker 2: were sort of quite lucky to not be seriously injured,
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  Speaker 2: because the sono is quite powerful and it can cause
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  Speaker 2: serious sort of ruptures of ear drums and so forth.
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  Speaker 2: So the Australian Defense Force and the government made firm
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  Speaker 2: sort of protests in both of those cases with their
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  Speaker 2: Chinese counterparts.
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  Speaker 3: But this is really a part of a pattern of
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  Speaker 3: Chinese behavior that we see not just with Australia.
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  Speaker 2: It happens a lot with nations, including the Philippines, who
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  Speaker 2: really do have a pretty rough time in the South
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  Speaker 2: China Sea when they try and replenish supplies for some
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  Speaker 2: of their personnel stationed on.
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  Speaker 3: Some of these disputed features.
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  Speaker 2: And Tokyo regularly protests about Chinese ships and aircraft being
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  Speaker 2: in its territory.
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  Speaker 3: Certainly America also has issues as well.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up a strange scene in parliament ahead of the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese Premier's visit. Subscribers to The Australian get all the
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  Speaker 1: big news first, and it's a lot cheaper than a
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  Speaker 1: day's supply of bamboo for Wang Wang and FUNI check
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  Speaker 1: us out at the Australian dot com dot au and
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  Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break. A strange scene unfolded
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  Speaker 1: in Federal Parliament House on Tuesday. A group of thirty
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  Speaker 1: Chinese officials descended on the building, visiting the Cabinet Office,
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  Speaker 1: the Ministerial Wing and other places normally only open to
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  Speaker 1: the most senior Australian staff.
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  Speaker 2: One of my colleagues got a call this morning from
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  Speaker 2: someone who told her about group that was moving.
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  Speaker 3: Through the place.
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  Speaker 2: So she quickly told me and I went down there,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, I was just sort of standing around listening.
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  Speaker 2: They can't really kick you out if you're in one
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  Speaker 2: of those public areas.
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  Speaker 1: It's one of the things that makes China so very
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  Speaker 1: different from Australia. Here the government is not really able
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  Speaker 1: to control the message quite as much as they would like.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, no, we are often writing things and doing things
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  Speaker 2: that the government would prefer not to have discussed, so
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  Speaker 2: that certainly doesn't happen in China.
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  Speaker 1: It was kind of weird because up until that point,
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Alberizi had refused to reveal Lee Chung was definitely
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  Speaker 1: coming or when he'd be here, even though New Zealand
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  Speaker 1: had already announced he'll be over there earlier in the week.
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  Speaker 2: Anthony Elberenezi has played it very much by the book
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  Speaker 2: on these types of diplomatic meetings ever since he was elected.
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  Speaker 2: Labor made a big point in opposition about Scott Morrison's
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  Speaker 2: leaking of those text messages with Emmanuel mccron around the
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  Speaker 2: cancelation the attacked class submarine, and so Labor has been
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  Speaker 2: really insistent about these kind of matters of protocol. But
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  Speaker 2: it sort of gets a little bit silly when everyone
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  Speaker 2: knows the Chinese premier is coming but the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: sort of can't quite bring himself to say it and
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  Speaker 2: calls it a potential visit. It's just not a particularly
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  Speaker 2: sort of deft way of taking those questions.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent.
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