Chinese residents were reportedly stunned to see Anthony Albanese during an early morning march through central Shanghai.
The Prime Minister wore a green and gold Matilda’s jumper and a cap from his beloved South Sydney Rabbitoh’s as he strolled through the Bund waterfront district in central Shanghai on Sunday morning.
He was accompanied by at least eight security personnel as he stood on the almost deserted boulevard, waving to the occasional passerby and asking someone in typical Australian fashion, “How are you?”
Despite the apparently large security presence, many locals were apparently shocked to see a world leader interacting with people in public.
“Many Shanghainese couldn’t believe how light his security staff was – or that he would talk to passersby the same way,” claimed Will Glasgow, Northeast Asia correspondent for the Australian newspaper Will Glasgow.
Anthony Albanese (pictured) wore a green and gold Matilda jersey and his beloved South Sydney Rabbitoh’s cap as he strolled the Bund waterfront in central Shanghai on Sunday morning
“This could never happen in China,” someone told me.”
Others were baffled by his identity, with one assuming he was “maybe an actor, an entrepreneur or a CEO.”
Mr Glasgow asked the Prime Minister if he had enjoyed his trip, to which he laughed and said: ‘Yes, it’s quite good’.
Yaqiu Wang, research director at the pro-democracy organization Freedom House, praised Albanese’s “good diplomatic tactics.”
“People in China are so used to leaders being aloof and untouchable that when a leader acts like a normal person, it brings up many heart-warming feelings,” Ms. Wang said.
Ms Yaqiu also urged the Australian Prime Minister to raise the plight of the Uighurs with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
On Sunday, Mr Albanese visited a trade fair in Shanghai where many Australian products were on display. Beijing has lifted most of its punitive tariffs on Australian products, with only $2 billion left on products such as spiny lobster and meat from some slaughterhouses.
The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against the ethnic Uighur population in Xinjiang, in the northwest of the country.
The abuses have been characterized as genocide by many international observers.
Many also accused Mr Albanese of channeling former Prime Minister John Howard, who was so famous for his walks in tracksuits. The Questacon science museum in Canberra named one of its ‘Walks of Wonder’ after him.
Others were more critical of Mr Albanese’s world travel.
“He’s just a tourist with a list of countries he wants to see while the taxpayers foot the bill,” one person wrote.
Mr Albanese is the first Australian Prime Minister to visit China since 2016.
His trip comes to mark the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s historic 1973 visit – the first by an Australian Prime Minister to China – and at a time when relations between Beijing and Canberra are thawing somewhat.
The Chinese Communist Party has lifted most of its punitive tariffs on Australian products, with only $2 billion remaining.
China is also reviewing its $1.2 billion ban on Australian wine and is expected to lift sanctions at the end of a five-month process.
The remaining sanctions apply to rock lobsters and some slaughterhouses.
Chinese state media hailed the prime minister’s visit as a harbinger of a new starting point for bilateral ties between the two nations.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived at Hongqiao Airport, Shanghai for a three-day visit to China
Mr Albanese is the first Australian Prime Minister to visit the country since 2016
On Sunday, Mr Albanese visited a trade fair in Shanghai where many Australian products were on display.
He said he would not rule out supporting China’s application to join the 12-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for a Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“What we have said is that each country must demonstrate that it can meet the high standards of the agreement and that is the basis for the future,” he said.
He flew to Beijing on Sunday evening, where he will meet Chinese leader Xi Jingping at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square.
Before the high-level talks, he will visit the Temple of Heaven, as Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam did during his landmark visit to China in 1973.
Albanese reaffirmed his pledge to increase the detention of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has spent more than four years behind bars on espionage charges.