Xi Jinping, the current President of the People’s Republic of China, has had a long and complicated relationship with Australia.
Throughout his lifetime, he has visited the country five times – more than any of his predecessors. He is also the only leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have visited all states and territories within Australia.
During his last trip, then-prime minister Tony Abbott gave Xi a special gift – a photograph of his father, Xi Zhongxun, with former NSW premier Neville Wran in 1979. Xi’s father once said he had “seen and learned many things” during his trip to Australia all those years ago.
But 43 years later, Beijing’s attitudes to Canberra are a far cry from what they were back then. Let’s take a look at how Xi Jinping’s relationship with Australia has changed over the years.
1979 – Xi Zhongxun Meets with Neville Wran
Xi Zhongxun was an influential Chinese politician who served as Vice Premier of China from 1980 to 1982. He was also the father of current President Xi Jinping. In 1979, during a state visit to Australia, Zhongxun met with then-NSWPremier Neville Wran. This meeting was considered to be groundbreaking at the time, as it was the first time a high-ranking CCP official had met with an Australian state premier.
2003 – Hu Jintao Meets with John Howard
In 2003, Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as General Secretary of the CCP and President of China. During his time in office, he continued to build upon the economic reforms that had been put in place by Deng Xiaoping. He also worked to improve China’s relationships with other countries, including Australia. In 2003, he met with then-prime minister John Howard in Beijing. This meeting resulted in the signing of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), which came into effect in 2015.
2013 – Xi Jinping Meets with Julia Gillard
By 2013, Xi Jinping had become the General Secretary of the CCP and President of China. He made his first state visit to Australia that year, meeting with then-prime minister Julia Gillard in Canberra. The two leaders discussed a range of issues, including trade and investment ties between China and Australia. Gillard also announced that she would be working towards ratifying ChAFTA during her time in office.
2017 – Malcolm Turnbull becomes Prime Minister after leadership spill
In September 2015, Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Australia following a leadership spill. One month later, he made his first official visit to China as prime minister. During this visit, he met with President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials to discuss trade relations between China and Australia. Turnbull also became the first Australian prime minister to address students at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Since 1979, when Xi Zhongxun meet with Neville Wran, Beijing’s attitude towards Canberra has changed significantly. In recent years, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, relations between China and Australia have become increasingly strained. This is due to a number of factors, including Australia’s decision to ratify ChAFTA and our relationship with the United States.
Ahron Young is an award winning journalist who has covered major news events around the world. Ahron is the Managing Editor and Founder of TICKER NEWS.
In addition to lavish spending and hosting parties at luxury hotels, Linda Yaccarino has built a lifelong career in advertising.
You can compare this to Elon Musk, who sleeps on the couch of his friends homes.
As Twitter’s new CEO, Yaccarino replaces Musk as the company’s founder.
This new odd couple is the talk of Madison Avenue. Will they be able to work together?
This decision will determine the future of one of the most important social media companies in the world.
Since Musk took over Twitter in late October, many big-name advertisers have fled, and Yaccarino is tasked with regaining their trust.
Gwynne Shotwell, Musk’s No. 2, has long handled the day-to-day duties at SpaceX, freeing Musk up to focus on what he enjoys — like sending humans to Mars.
Yaccarino joins a company with 1,500 employees, many of them engineers and programmers who will still report to Musk as product development overseer.
Compared to her last job, Twitter’s advertising department is dramatically smaller. Over the past seven months, employees have endured rounds of layoffs and clients fleeing, partly due to Musk’s ownership changes, his content moderation changes, and his own controversial tweets.
The first major hurdle may be dealing with Musk. Perhaps Yaccarino will discover that a tightening economy, down-trodden ad market and shifting media landscape are nothing, compared to dealing with her now boss.
There have been over 130,000 layoffs across the technology sector in the last five months
The technology sector was billed as the most exciting industry to work in.
Big offices, big dreams, big money were all part of the parcel for many companies attracting staff.
As many organisations caught onto the momentum of the pandemic, the same energy has not been particularly met on the other side.
Thousands of workers have since been laid off as the good times stopped rolling.
In fact, the technology sector’s layoffs are the highest since the dotcom bubble burst 22 years ago.
The BT Group is one of the latest companies cutting staff.
Fifty-five thousand have lost their jobs as part of a corporate restructure.
CEO Philip Jansen will freeze his £1.1 million salary until he retires, according to reports from Sky News.
The ground is also shifting as artificial intelligence takes hold and the economy worsens.
BT Group said it is laying off 11,000 staff because of the increased capacity for artificial intelligence in the workplace.
At the same time, companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs are among those restricting or banning the use of tools like ChatGPT amid privacy or data concerns.