Anthony Albanese receives the kind of compliment you DON’T want to get: China’s Communist regime makes comments that were once unthinkable about an Australian prime minister
Beijing has praised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a world leader that others from the West should emulate – in a compliment that the prime minister at home may not find helpful at all.
The communist superpower’s state-run newspaper, the China Daily, published a glowing editorial on Thursday, complimenting Australia for “waking up” to China’s importance and praising Mr Albanese for his “strategic autonomy”.
In the past, the Chinese regime’s mouthpiece has viciously attacked Australian politicians, including by portraying Albanese’s predecessor Scott Morrison as a “yes man” for America.
But the state media body struck a markedly different tone about Mr. Albanese in an editorial this week, praising his government for a masterful “balancing act” between its alliance with Washington and its economic interests with China.
Mr Albanese was further commended for the way he has handled the “unprecedented geopolitical complexity and uncertainty” following Donald Trump’s stunning comeback in the 2024 US elections earlier this month.
The publication previously wrote that peace would not be “easy” after newly elected President Donald Trump won the election and began appointing Cabinet members with hawkish views on China.
But unlike during Trump’s first term, when Australia was “under Washington’s anti-China spell”, the editors wrote that Canberra had since “woken up”.
“Australia’s ties with China deteriorated as the previous Australian government fell under Washington’s anti-China spell,” the editorial said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was praised by China’s state-run newspaper China Daily as an example of what other Western leaders should aspire to be.
The laudatory editorial from state media comes just one day before Mr Albanese is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the APEC conference in Peru
“But Canberra has woken up to the importance of those ties under the Albanian government and has started to restore them.”
Trump has threatened to impose 60 percent tariffs on China after he becomes president on January 20.
Economists predict that these tariffs, which are essentially a tax on imports or exports, would slow economic growth in countries like Australia, which relies on trade with China.
Mr Albanese discussed trade with the new US president during a congratulatory phone call following Mr Trump’s election victory.
The two discussed trading and ways to do so help protect the Australian economy from global challenges.
“I pointed out that Australia, or the United States, has a trade surplus with Australia,” he said on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister discussed his phone call with Mr Trump to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto when the pair met in Peru on Friday for the APEC summit.
“He had a phone call with President Trump, as did I last week, so we discussed that and what it could mean for the world,” Subianto told reporters.
The China Daily praised Mr Albanese for his masterful “balancing act” between his alliance with Washington and economic interests with China.
Chinese state media previously wrote that peace would not be ‘easy’ after newly elected President Donald Trump won the US elections
“It’s clear that this is part of the backdrop to APEC and that the impact of a change in the US administration will be the impact of the G20.”
The comment could expose Mr. Albanese to criticism that his government’s relationship with China is too cozy.
The editorial is not Mr. Albanese’s first compliment of the Chinese regime.
The country’s second-in-command, Premier Li Qiang, told reporters that locals started calling the premier “a handsome boy” during a trip to Beijing in November 2023.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Mr Albanese and other world leaders in the coming days at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and G20 meeting in Peru and Brazil in South America.