Albanese’s China visit isn’t a zero-sum game

If you are looking for an example of how our media can turn a good story into a bad story, Prime Minister Anthony’s Arnavutça Approaching visit to China reported.

A journalist from Australia Barnaby Joyce asked, “Coalition Heavy Miklet”, olmak Whether it’s good to be friends with China ”. Joyce said that we had to do this, “but not at the expense of the United States” and said that Albanian was playing a “very dangerous” game. Inspired by John Curtin, criticizing Albanian’s last speech OP-ED In the same newspaper, Greg Sheridan, “Washington Anthony will not be affected by the Curtin call of Curtin… But Beijing will embrace it”.

Sky News performed better later . Australia Showing us a good story that Actually, it’s a bad story. I’m talking Sharri Markson explains incredibly about Albanian’s visit to China: “ Fourth timeAlthough he still failed to hold a single meeting with the US President,… This is very worrying. “

Framework of these stories seems to follow the logic of “no need to say”. So, a story about diplomatic relations between Australia and China is necessarily a story about Australia and the United States and a story about Australia and China about Australia-US relations.

In any case, our media and coalition politicians seem to imagine Australia as a child who resulted in a scattered custody arrangement of long -term divorce procedures of their parents. He was caught between a tempoous father and a needy mother (which one you can choose), the child Cowerrs is afraid of every word spoken as a weapon between parents. The child, who is worried not to satisfy both parents, cannot decide whether he will spend holidays on my mother or take a trip with my father.

It would be wrong to assume that there is a Murdoch media who likes to infantism in this way. An end title inside Age Summarizing: “Between Xi and Trump, PM can be ‘comfortable and comfortable’?”

Media stories and public opinion comments from some dazzling policy thinkers and politicians are often full of superficial analyzes by interpreting every movement of the government as an attempt to “send a signal to Beijing” or “guarantee Washington”. This lazy and shallow analysis states that too much foreign policy in this country is wrong.

To comment on Albanian’s difficulty in establishing a meeting with Trump and the intention of Xi Jinping to use it against the USA AFR journalist He is wondering if Albania has sent a “mixed message about Australia’s relationship with the United States”. How the journalist achieves Xi’s intentions is the estimation of everyone.

The media tendency to invented bilateral files, build straw men, or call Bogeyman to milk that any potential conflict is understandable. As a result, carefully progress or quiet and successful negotiations do not make click titles. However, since the wider community is “irrelevant ,, it is particularly unfortunate in foreign policy reports – AFR International Editor James Curran suspects – Or probably interested, but can not get accurate and independent information from outside the media.

In terms of the US Alliance-or vice versa-Australia’s impact on the capacity of independent foreign policy thoughts, it is at the risk of framing every foreign policy of China and the decision of the decision of the United States and under the risk of forgetting that China and the United States take its own decisions about Australia according to its own national interests.

While he hopes to go to China and meet Trump, Albanian apparently hopes to advance the national interests of Australia as well as informed by Australia’s own geography, economy and values. The dual logic of great power competition is probably far from its mind. Although it is the work of our media to report in both initiatives, it seems to imagine Australia as a dominant medium power that can shape its regional relations, but as a proxy actor in the US-China struggle.

In addition, our mainstream media, Australia’s developed relations with China as naturally weakening with the US, or when Australia’s difficulties with the United States as a gain for China as a gain for China-the inability to meet a meeting with Trump or a tariff exemption, and further strengthens.

This mentality is also common in public and media discourse. WE When it comes to talking about China. Regardless of the strategic competition of the two countries, the US maintains strong economic ties with China – especially in trade, investment and technology sectors. For example, in 2024 USA-China trade Still over 580 billion dollars and American company As Apple and Tesla are intensely embedded in China – Trump’s tariff war can lead such companies to establish a store elsewhere in Asia.

In addition, if the US can trade with China using Australia’s difficult relationship with China, it seems that it does not hesitate. This proven A few years ago, America and its allies have benefited from Australia against Australia, which has benefited from an economic coercion campaign, which created difficulties for Australian exporters. Some Australian exports against China have been directed to other markets, including the USA.

The United States can talk to China as a zero -total game, but this is usually not in practice. So, the question of Australia is this: Why should the medium power like Australia take it from this mentality?

Interestingly, Barnaby Joyce, emphasizing the need for our wagon to take a permanent hitchhike to the USA taught A geography lesson in the Australian journalist time: “You need to understand that we live in the Western Pacific field.”

Indeed, Australia, Tasman, other Pacific family members and New Zealand cousins ​​in our Asian neighbors, as well as the Western Pacific field. Many, like Australia, live with the tension between the two great powers, but without falling into dual thoughts – very few make themselves a foam of how to serve the two masters. Protection Ours ours East Asia– Southeast Asia and Pacific The neighbors clearly mastered.

In fact, diplomacy-especially requires managing tensions to avoid selecting the parties for medium power in a multipolar Asia-Pacific. The Albanian government is very involved in managing the US-China tension as it interacts with both forces, where interests are aligned (for example, trade with China, the United States). But clearly, this conservative media and coalition politicians are not good enough for our politicians, and unfortunately we will see more as the visit of Albania to China approaches.