Australia and China patch things up

WHEN ANTHONY ALBANESE shook hands with Xi Jinping in Beijing on November 6th, it marked the first time in seven years that an Australian prime minister had travelled to China to meet its leader. For much of the intervening period the two countries’ economic and political relations were badly ruptured. Yet in the Great Hall of the People Mr Xi declared that China and Australia had “embarked on the right path of improvement”. Mr Albanese, for his part, said that Australia supported China’s growth and “ongoing engagement with the world”. That his visit came on the 50th anniversary of Australia’s opening of diplomatic relations with Communist-run China was intended by both sides to symbolise a significant step towards normalisation.