Xi Jinping reinforces China’s military rights during Albanese meet
XI ‘BRUSHES ASIDE’ AUSTRALIAN CONCERNS
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares for the third full day of his trip to China, numerous publications have led overnight on the outcome of his meeting with President Xi Jinping yesterday.
The ABC and The Australian are both leading on Albanese revealing, after the meeting, that he had raised concerns about the Chinese military exercise off the Australian coastline in February and what the Chinese president said in response.
“I said what I said at the time, which was that it [the live-fire drills by Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea] was within international law … but that we were concerned about the notice and the way that it happened, including the live-fire exercises,” he said. “In response, of course, President Xi said that China engaged in exercises just as Australia engages in exercises.”
The Australian says the remarks represent Xi telling Albanese that China will “conduct exercises wherever they want in international waters”, while the ABC says Xi “appeared to have brushed aside Australia’s concerns”.
The PM also told reporters on Tuesday he had raised the detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun, declaring: “You wouldn’t expect there to be an immediate outcome, and that is not the way things work.”
Despite all the media commentary and predictions leading up to the meeting, the ABC reports the ownership of the Port of Darwin was not even raised, and The Australian highlights the leaders “did not speak directly about the US”.
Albanese, who said he had agreed to a review of the China-Australia free-trade agreement, called the meeting “constructive”, while Xi said the countries could avoid diplomatic tensions in the future by “seeking common ground while sharing differences and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation”. The Chinese leader added: “No matter how the international landscape may evolve, we should approach this overall direction unswervingly.”
Guardian Australia highlights how security guards had tried to stop Australian journalists from leaving a popular Beijing tourist destination, which prompted Albanese to say yesterday: “China has a different system obviously with the media.”
After his meeting with Xi, Albanese met with China’s Premier Li Qiang. The site reports Li said relations between Australia and China had “moved beyond a low point and returned to the right track of stability and development”. He also referenced the current global instability, saying: “The development of all countries is faced with new challenges. Given such circumstances, China and Australia, as important trade partners, should strengthen dialogue and cooperation.”
Every publication has made reference to the elephant in the room amid all these comments, with the AAP pointing out Albanese and Li signed several memoranda of understanding on Tuesday, “as Australia and China sought to boost business links as US President Donald Trump upends the global trade order”.
The Nine papers report Albanese said Australia would keep its trading relationship with China separate from its ties to America.
“Our relationship with China is very separate from that. China — as our major trading partner — the destination for more than one in four of our export dollars comes here. The trade with the United States is important, but it’s less than 5%,” the prime minister said.
The papers also flag the reception Albanese’s visit is currently getting in China, quoting state media outlet China Daily as saying the length of the PM’s visit showed “Australia’s commitment to deepening ties and fostering stability amid the uncertain global landscape”.
Meanwhile, shadow defence minister Angus Taylor popped up on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night to claim Australia should make “principled commitments” to the security of Taiwan and be “prepared to act”.
HENRY: FIX ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
Ken Henry, the former Treasury secretary, NAB chairman and prime ministerial adviser, is up at the National Press Club today and previews of his speech have generated plenty of coverage this morning.
The Nine papers flag Henry, now the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation chair, will say there is “no chance” the Albanese government will be able to reach its key policy goals without fixing the federal Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) and state environmental laws.
The AAP reports Henry will say later: “If we can’t achieve environmental law reform, then we should stop dreaming about more challenging options. To put it bluntly, there is no chance of Australia meeting stated targets for net zero, renewable energy, critical minerals development, housing and transport infrastructure without very high-quality national laws.”
He will also claim that overhauling environmental laws will provide an answer to the country’s productivity issue, something the Albanese government has made a key goal of its second term. “Our failure to recognise that the laws of nature affect the set of feasible choices available to us is now having a discernible impact on productivity — and things are getting worse with accelerating speed. We need to break the deadlock,” Henry will say. “Boosting productivity and resilience relies upon environmental law reform.”
The comments come a day after the Federal Court “dismissed a landmark case that argued the Australian government breached its duty of care to protect the Torres Strait Islands from climate change”, Guardian Australia reports.
The ABC flags “Judge Michael Wigney ruled Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions targets are matters of ‘core government policy’ which should be decided by the parliament, not the courts”.
The minister tasked with reforming the act last term was, of course, Tanya Plibersek — which, as we all know, didn’t exactly go to plan — in no small part thanks to Albanese scuppering a deal she had been working on with the Greens at the last minute.
Plibersek has since been moved out of the environment portfolio and is now in charge of social services. Guardian Australia leads this morning on her new department, warning she faces an uphill battle to justify and prioritise a new multibillion-dollar social services system amid “rising geopolitical tensions and political polarisation”.
TRUMP ‘DISAPPOINTED BUT NOT DONE’ WITH PUTIN
US President Donald Trump has told the BBC he’s “disappointed but not done” with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The 79-year-old spoke to the broadcaster hours after his announcement with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte on Monday that he plans to send weapons to Ukraine and was giving Moscow 50 days to agree a ceasefire deal or face “severe tariffs” (although to confuse matters, The Wall Street Journal has reported in the last few hours that Trump had said the US isn’t planning on providing long-range missiles to Ukraine as part of a new aid initiative and had warned Kyiv against targeting Moscow).
Trump said of his recent conversations with Putin: “We’ll have a great conversation. I’ll say: ‘That’s good, I’ll think we’re close to getting it done,’ and then he’ll knock down a building in Kyiv.”
The US president, when asked if he trusted Putin, declared: “I trust almost nobody.” When pushed on if he was “done” with the Russian leader, he added: “I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him.”
Elsewhere, the broadcaster also points out some members of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement “have reacted angrily to the president’s plans to sell weapons to NATO, arguing it is a betrayal of his promise to end US involvement in foreign wars”.
Finally, The Australian Financial Review has led this morning on US inflation rising last month to its highest level since February as Trump’s controversial and chaotic tariffs push up the cost of a range of goods.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
King Charles III’s annual swan census has begun (yes, it’s a real thing).
As the ABC reports, the five-day census — known as the “Swan Upping” — to assess the health of the monarch’s swans started on the River Thames on Monday.
In words that make total sense in 2025, the broadcaster states: “One of the monarch’s lesser-known titles is Seigneur of the Swans (Lord of the Swans). According to ancient lore, he or she owns all members of the mute swan species found in Britain’s open waters.”
Each year, a team of oarsmen are tasked with finding the swans on a stretch of the River Thames and checking them for signs of disease or injury. Apparently the number of swans recorded in the census has declined in recent years, primarily due to outbreaks of avian flu.
Say What?
Who the hell does the RBA think will bear the cost of this ridiculous decision? First, merchants, and then customers.
Wes Lambert
The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association’s chief executive was responding to the Reserve Bank saying card payment surcharges should be eliminated for debit and credit payments.
CRIKEY RECAP
Finally, this whole saga shows us that conspiracy theories have the power to endure, even in the face of denials from those whom even ardent believers have come to trust.
Prominent Republicans who for years winked and nodded around this topic likely did so under the foolish assumption that it would only bring them greater popularity, without the foresight to realise that it might well create a fairly widespread expectation — across both sides of the political spectrum — of a satisfying conclusion to the otherwise horrific Epstein story.
Those who have previously been promised such a payoff simply won’t accept that the “official” version of events was the truth all along; people are not so easily dissuaded from their articles of faith. So, Trump, who is famous for helping stoke conspiratorial fires and then benefiting electorally from their warm glow, may now discover the hard way that fire, if left unchecked, can also burn your house to the ground.
How to silence academic speech on Palestine
Our universities have failed staff and students by punishing, sanctioning and denying us the space to engage in vital debate about one of the most urgent events of our time. As we witness Israel’s efforts to erase Palestine, and the pro-Israel lobby’s attempt to stamp out and punish anyone critical of Israel, we must affirm our resolve against these McCarthyist endeavours, rather than capitulate to bullying threats.
In answer to my students’ question, yes, their teachers were probably afraid. Academics already face complaints for talking critically about Israel; staff and students are already scared to talk about Palestine for risk of being slandered as antisemitic.
Jillian Segal’s demand for universities to adopt the IHRA or UA definitions of antisemitism, and her plan to surveil and “punish” institutions that don’t comply, will only exacerbate this fear and place staff and students at greater risk.
Spotify, the military industrial complex, and the future of art
Though it resulted in outcry from “artists and industry advocates”, and though it prompted a (so far fairly limited) boycott of the platform, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement that he was investing €600 million (A$1.07 billion) into defence company Helsing’s AI military tech — in the process, becoming chairman — saw little reflection on a chilling, but obvious notion.
This is the man who, with his colleagues, has been allowed to completely dominate how music is consumed, accessed and created — and, as a result, how music now sounds.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
‘I am a fighter’: Kapterian reveals why she is challenging the Bradfield result (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Australian presenter John Torode to leave UK MasterChef after allegation of using racist language (The Guardian)
Thousands of Afghans were moved to UK in secret scheme after data breach (BBC)
Fauja Singh, world’s ‘oldest marathon runner’, dies at 114 after hit-and-run (ABC)
The media’s pivot to AI is not real and not going to work (404 Media)
Emmys 2025: List of nominees (The Hollywood Reporter)
THE COMMENTARIAT
A very Trumpian deal means Russia now faces a much more formidable Ukraine — John Lyons (ABC): Russia is set to face a much more formidable enemy on the battlefield in Ukraine. In coming weeks — if US President Donald Trump’s new plan is implemented — Ukraine will be armed with more powerful weaponry and much more of it.
The deal is very Trumpian. Trump the commander-in-chief has decided that Russia is about to face a much more heavily armed Ukraine, while Trump the businessman has decided that NATO — Europe and Canada — should pick up the bill.
The significance of what is now happening is that Trump has clearly lost patience with Vladimir Putin and has decided to put the Russian leader in a pincer movement.
I ran DFAT. I hope Elbridge Colby sinks AUKUS for Australia — Peter Varghese (AFR): Our security will only be found through defence self-reliance, taking advantage of our continental geography and buttressed by the technology, intelligence and deterrent value of an alliance with the United States.
But defence self-reliance does not come cheap. It will require a significant uplift in our defence budget — not to meet some arbitrary percentage of gross domestic product but to fund the force structure that we need for the defence of Australia. Nuclear submarines distort both the cost and focus of that force structure. If walking away from AUKUS is a bridge too far for the Australian government, the US might yet save us from ourselves by adding conditions that no Australian government could accept.
