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Albo’s China charm campaign · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, July fourteenth, twenty twenty five. Some of Australia's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: most senior legal figures have called on the National Anti
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  Speaker 1: Corruption Commission to publicly name the allegedly corrupt officials it investigates.
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  Speaker 1: It comes after Commissioner Paul Brereton kept private the name
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of a public official who used her position to give
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  Speaker 1: her future brother in law a plum government job. The
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  Speaker 1: taxpayer funded arts body Creative Australia is being driven by
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a political agenda. An exclusive analysis by The Australian shows
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  Speaker 1: you can read those stories right now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot au. Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi kicked off
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  Speaker 1: a six day trip to China in Shanghai on Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: where he launched a tourism campaign designed to bring more
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  Speaker 1: Chinese tourists to Australia. Today, Why the PM's hanging out
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  Speaker 1: with a former soccer rou and what Australia would do
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  Speaker 1: if China and the US clashed over Taiwan.
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  Speaker 2: He's off again. A second straight red card for Kevin Musker.
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  Speaker 1: If Kevin Musket cared about red cards. His performance on
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes off the soccer field didn't show it.
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  Speaker 3: Wild, reckless. He just flew into that tackle. He's mistimed
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  Speaker 3: it horrendously. The Melbourne victory captain, it's a red card
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  Speaker 3: and things go from bata use for the home side.
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  Speaker 3: The referee in the game wants againscar. He walks a
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  Speaker 3: fine line, Kevin Musket. This time he stepped down the route.
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  Speaker 1: The brutal defender played forty six games for the Soccer
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  Speaker 1: US from the mid nineteen nineties and a quick Google
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  Speaker 1: search turned up a notorious reputation.
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  Speaker 3: Can we talk about that very quickly?
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  Speaker 4: So?
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  Speaker 3: Was there a player that you were ever scared of?
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  Speaker 3: There's been a coup work?
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  Speaker 5: The player that you turn.
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  Speaker 3: Up in Kevin Muscat, you're going to say, Kevin Musk.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Moscats did these days. Musket is himself the manager
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  Speaker 1: of a team, the Shanghai Port Football Club, who he's
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  Speaker 1: coached to two Chinese Super League Premiership wins, and on
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  Speaker 1: Sunday he was on the welcoming committee greeting Anthony Alberanizi
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  Speaker 1: on the first stop of the Prime Minister's six day
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  Speaker 1: tour of China.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 4: And we have a parliamentary football team.
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  Speaker 3: We're not very good.
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  Speaker 1: The PM is famously more of an NRL guy, but
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  Speaker 1: he's hoping to leverage Musket's profile to entice more Chinese
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  Speaker 1: tourists to Australia. The Australian's North Asia correspondent Will Glasgow
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  Speaker 1: met the soccer super coach at the club's headquarters on
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  Speaker 1: a trip to Shanghai.
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  Speaker 3: It's a pleasure to meet him.
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  Speaker 2: I suspected, I actually to him when I met him
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  Speaker 2: a few months ago, that I wouldn't be surprised if
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  Speaker 2: he got a tap to be asked to meet the
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister on this trip, because there just aren't very
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  Speaker 2: many good stories like that of Australians doing well in
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  Speaker 2: China right now.
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  Speaker 3: They're very few on the ground.
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  Speaker 2: So he's absolutely beloved amongst the fan base and has
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  Speaker 2: done very good things at.
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  Speaker 3: That club and clearly it's a club with a very.
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  Speaker 2: Good culture at the moment and that's being set at
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  Speaker 2: the top by Kevin.
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  Speaker 1: But it's not all about soccer. This week's visit to
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  Speaker 1: China represents the longest bilateral visit Anthony Albanezi has made
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  Speaker 1: in his time as Prime Minister. In the coming days,
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  Speaker 1: he'll meet with President ji Jinping, Premier Li Chang and
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  Speaker 1: National People's Congress Chairman Jao Lijeure.
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  Speaker 2: Will.
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  Speaker 1: Much of the focus of Anthony Albanese's trip to China
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  Speaker 1: so far has been on tourism. But what's the overwriting
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  Speaker 1: purpose of this visit.
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  Speaker 2: China is a far and away Australia's biggest trade park.
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  Speaker 3: It's our biggest customer.
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  Speaker 2: China buys more from Australia than our next five biggest
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  Speaker 2: markets combined.
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  Speaker 3: It's just a super mega market.
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  Speaker 2: So the top economic priority is the Prime Minister coming
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  Speaker 2: over here and celebrating that and defending that there.
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  Speaker 3: Are pockets of growth, but it's hard now.
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  Speaker 2: And the real worry for the Australian government is there
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  Speaker 2: are signs that some are the real giants in the
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  Speaker 2: trade relationship in what we export to China, and top
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  Speaker 2: of that is iron ore. There are some signs that
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  Speaker 2: maybe that trade has peaked with China. That has just
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  Speaker 2: grown and grown over decades and it's now worth more
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  Speaker 2: than one hundred billion dollars a year. It's worth one
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  Speaker 2: fifth of Australia's exports to the whole world. So it's enormous,
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  Speaker 2: but the last few years it's gone down and there's
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  Speaker 2: some reasons to worry that could be the beginning of
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  Speaker 2: a long structural trend. Not that it's going to fall
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  Speaker 2: for Cliff, but that it might just gradually come down
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  Speaker 2: year by year.
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  Speaker 3: So that kind of four.
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  Speaker 2: Can overwhelm the gains from a lot of these other
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  Speaker 2: products that have been growing. There's other agricultural products that
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  Speaker 2: came back after the ban years. So yeah, the trade
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  Speaker 2: relationship in many ways is in a good state in
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  Speaker 2: that there's no restrictions anymore. But you can now see
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  Speaker 2: that there's certain segments in that export basket Australia has
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  Speaker 2: to China that look like there might be some big
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  Speaker 2: structural problems. And above all or the one that causes
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  Speaker 2: the biggest worry, just because of how important it is
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  Speaker 2: for the Australian economy and the Australian treasurer is iron Ore.
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  Speaker 1: Fourteen executives from some of Australia's biggest companies are joining
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  Speaker 1: the PM on the trip.
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  Speaker 4: I've brought with me a whole range of business people
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  Speaker 4: from the resources sector, the tourism sector, from the education sector.
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  Speaker 4: Because one in four of Australian jobs is dependent upon
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  Speaker 4: our export and overwhelmingly by far the largest destination for
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  Speaker 4: Australian export is right here in China. That says something
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  Speaker 4: about how important this relationship is.
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  Speaker 2: Almost a third of them are in the iron ore
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  Speaker 2: trade right. So there's the local boss of Rio Tinto,
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  Speaker 2: the local boss of BHP, the chairman and founder Andrew
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  Speaker 2: Forest of ford es Q, So the three biggest Australian
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  Speaker 2: iron ore miners, they're all coming over here in big,
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  Speaker 2: serious senior ways. And there's also the head of Australia's
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  Speaker 2: steel business, blue Scope, coming over here. He'll also be
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  Speaker 2: involved with those other iron ore companies in conversations with
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  Speaker 2: Chinese counterparts about green steel and green iron, about ways
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  Speaker 2: of making steel and making iron that release less carbon
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  Speaker 2: will use less So that's almost a third of it,
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  Speaker 2: which again speaks to the oversized role of iron ore
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  Speaker 2: and steelmaking in the Australia China relationship. There's also the
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  Speaker 2: head of the BCA, and there's the head of Macquarie
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  Speaker 2: Group and a senior exec from A and Z. A
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  Speaker 2: and Z, for example, is one of the Australian banks.
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  Speaker 2: It's the one that had the biggest footprint in China.
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  Speaker 2: But it's retrenched that they've sold almost all of their
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  Speaker 2: operations in China years ago. So actually they're another one
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  Speaker 2: who I'll be very interested to meet and talk to
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  Speaker 2: to hear what are they seeing in China right now.
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  Speaker 3: I mean they do business with China.
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  Speaker 2: They still work and do some business with Chinese business firms,
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  Speaker 2: but I think the ambitions they've had have been downsized
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  Speaker 2: a lot over the last decade. Now they might be
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  Speaker 2: looking at some ways that they can grow certain segments
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  Speaker 2: of that. But I'd be surprised actually if the finance
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  Speaker 2: sector is looking at a big push into China.
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  Speaker 3: But that look see, maybe they'll surprise me on this
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  Speaker 3: trip coming up.
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  Speaker 1: While Albo is in China, Beijing has eyes on Australia.
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  Speaker 1: As Anthony Albanezi touchdown in China on the weekend, a
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  Speaker 1: bilateral training exercise known as Talisman Saber got underway on
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  Speaker 1: Australia's East Coast. It's the largest bilateral training exercise between
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Defense Force and the US military, and it's
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  Speaker 1: fair to say China is extremely interested in what plays out.
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  Speaker 1: But in Shanghai, the Prime Minister was less forthcoming about
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  Speaker 1: what role, if any Australia would play if a war
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  Speaker 1: broke out between China and the US over Taiwan.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I have discussions with people which are private and
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  Speaker 4: I keep it private. But on defense spending, Australia is
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  Speaker 4: considerably increasing our defense spending and will continue to invest
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  Speaker 4: in whatever we need to improve our capability.
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  Speaker 5: It's not surprising that Anthony Albanesi, speaking in China, is
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  Speaker 5: reticent to talk about a potential future war between the
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  Speaker 5: US and China and what role that Australia would play
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  Speaker 5: in it. I mean, even at the best of times,
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  Speaker 5: the government really bats away these types of questions.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent.
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  Speaker 5: So Anthony ALBERESI he's really walking in diplomatic tightrope during
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  Speaker 5: this trip between talking up the economic relationship with China,
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  Speaker 5: which is vital to Australia's national interests, but also the
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  Speaker 5: alliance we have with the US and what that could
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  Speaker 5: mean in the future if the US and China come
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  Speaker 5: to blows over Taiwan.
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  Speaker 1: Over the weekend, The Financial Times reported the United States
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  Speaker 1: Under Secretary for Defense Albridge Colby, the same guy who's
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  Speaker 1: been putting the hard word on Australia to up defense
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  Speaker 1: spending to three point five percent of GDP has been
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  Speaker 1: pressing Australia and Japan on this very question.
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  Speaker 5: Mister Colby's pretty forward leaning US defense bureaucrat. He's got
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  Speaker 5: some long standing views on the US's need to push
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  Speaker 5: its allies to really contribute to collective defense. He's on
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  Speaker 5: the record of saying, why would we give Australia three
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  Speaker 5: of our nuclear submarines when they might not be contributed
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  Speaker 5: to a fight that we get in with China in
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  Speaker 5: the coming years. There was a report in the Financial
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  Speaker 5: Times that mister Colby was piling pressure on Australia and
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  Speaker 5: Japan to clarify what role they would play if the
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  Speaker 5: US and China went to war over Taiwan. Now, this
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  Speaker 5: is despite the US's own policy of strategic ambiguity on
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  Speaker 5: what it would do in terms of Taiwan contingency. But
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  Speaker 5: Kolby has really endorsed that report, posting on social media
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  Speaker 5: that Donald Trump is urging US allies to step up
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  Speaker 5: their defense spending and other efforts in terms of our
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  Speaker 5: collective defense. So he's really not walking away from this.
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  Speaker 5: And all of this does raise some serious concerns I
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  Speaker 5: think about how the Orchestra Review is going to shake out.
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  Speaker 5: Koby is heading that review and it really could introduce
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  Speaker 5: some new elements to the agreement that might be a
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  Speaker 5: little bit more onerous on Australia and we're really going
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  Speaker 5: to have to just wait to see how that sort
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  Speaker 5: of pans out.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent
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  Speaker 1: and Will Glasgow is our North Asia correspondent. They're on
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  Speaker 1: the ground in China with Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi this week.
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  Speaker 1: You can read all their recording right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au