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Chinese officials were rude and belligerent. Why did that take Albanese so long to say?
By Matthew Knott
Rude. Belligerent. Completely disrespectful. Utterly inappropriate. These were some of the words Anthony Albanese could have accurately used when asked on Tuesday morning to describe the behaviour of Chinese embassy officials at a signing ceremony at Parliament House the previous day.
Instead, the prime minister opted for “ham-fisted” and “clumsy”. He used this language in multiple breakfast radio interviews, indicating it had been carefully chosen the night before. It took about eight more hours – and Coalition demands for him to “grow a backbone” – for Albanese to toughen his language.
His initial descriptors were not inaccurate. But they amounted to a paltry form of condemnation after such a boorish display from the supposed diplomats, who tried to block journalist and former detainee Cheng Lei from the view of cameras and refused to move when asked.
Albanese was caught unaware on Monday afternoon when asked about the incident at a press conference, held two hours after the now infamous signing ceremony. By then, footage of Chinese officials blocking Cheng had already gone on viral on social media and been reported prominently by mainstream media outlets.
“I didn’t see that,” Albanese said when asked about the incident.
Credit: Matt Golding
“I saw Cheng Lei and we smiled at each other during the event. Look, I’m not aware of those issues.”
It was a busy day for Albanese and his advisers, but someone from his team would ideally have briefed him about what occurred so that he could give a considered answer.
Months of planning go into high-level occasions like a visit by a Chinese premier, but it’s important to be nimble enough to respond to unforseeable “black swan” events.
Politicians don’t get to choose the story of the day, but they do get to choose how to respond to it. Indeed, with a bit of boldness and quick thinking, events that at first seem like disasters can turn out to be golden opportunities.
After a night to workshop his response, Albanese hit the morning radio circuit on Tuesday with his “clumsy, ham-fisted” formulation, which seemed to generously imply the embassy officials were little more than bumbling buffoons. Albanese said complaints had been lodged with the Chinese embassy in Canberra, but did not demand an apology or specify what action he wanted to be taken.
Sky News journalist Cheng Lei at the signing ceremony on Monday.Credit: AP
Cheng herself, who suffered far worse during her three years in a Beijing detention centre, brushed off the incident, saying it was “amusing that they have shot themselves in the foot”.
It’s true that a foreign official behaving like a pork chop by standing in front of a reporter is a trivial affair in and of itself. Beijing’s systematic repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, its assault on democracy in Hong Kong and cyberattacks on nations, including Australia, are far more significant violations, to name just a few.
Yet what occurred at the signing ceremony was a symbolically powerful moment, one that affronted Australians’ famed sense of fairness. You don’t need a degree in international relations to grasp the sting of being disrespected by a guest.
By refusing to budge despite the protestations of Australian officials, the Chinese embassy official confirmed Australians’ worst fears of China under Xi Jinping: a thuggish superpower so smitten with its sense of superiority that it can throw its weight around at will.
Wang Wang, one of the pandas at Adelaide Zoo being used for so-called “panda diplomacy.”Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Why comply with the wishes of a remote island continent with a population of just 27 million when you can buy it off with a few pandas on loan and a bulk order of iron ore?
Anyone doubting the indignation the incident has aroused should check the reaction on social media, where angry Australians are demanding the embassy officials be sent home on the next flight and asking why police didn’t intervene to boot them out of the event.
Determined to oversee a warm and friendly visit, Albanese may have missed the opportunity for a Love Actually-style moment in which he wins plaudits from voters for standing up to a bigger power - as Hugh Grant’s fictional British prime minister did while standing next to a cocky American counterpart at a Downing Street press conference.
Albanese eventually arrived where he should have started, using an afternoon radio interview to describe the embassy officials’ conduct as “rude”, “inappropriate” and “unacceptable”.
It needn’t have taken so long, and so many attempts, to get around to stating the obvious.
Australians don’t want their leaders picking pointless fights with the country’s biggest trading partner, but they don’t want them to go soft on bad behaviour either.
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