Xiao Qian’s term as China’s ambassador saw the Australia-China relationship move from deep freeze to cautious stability, though many tensions remain unresolved.
In modern-day instant communication, the role of an ambassador has become less important than it once was.
But China’s man in Canberra for the past four and a half years, Xiao Qian, has played a key role in steadying the relationship after the very rocky period under the Morrison government.
An experienced diplomat, Xiao was sent to Canberra from his former post as Chinese ambassador to Indonesia, a key diplomatic appointment. It followed earlier stints as ambassador to Hungary and posts in the Philippines, the US and India.
He arrived on Australia Day 2022, positioned so he could take advantage of a possible Labor victory in the election to improve relations – an event which came to pass in May 2022 with the election of the Albanese government.
It was a sharp contrast with the situation which had faced his predecessor, Cheng Jingye, a low-key diplomat who found himself thrust into a rapidly deteriorating political relationship between Canberra and Beijing in the wake of calls by the Morrison government for an inquiry into the causes of Covid, in the uncomfortable situation of becoming the ‘bad guy’ on the spot. His stint saw China react to deteriorating relations by imposing tariffs on a range of goods including wine and barley, with imports on other goods including beef, lobster and coal faced with other barriers.
Experienced, urbane and confident, Xiao arrived with a more positive brief. While staying within the parameters of the official line from Beijing, he was prepared to take a more high-profile role than many of his predecessors.
I first saw him in action when the director of the Australia China Relations Institute at UTS, James Laurenceson, invited him to speak at a public forum at the university in June 2022.
Laurenceson insisted that the forum be an open one, albeit with tight security, which attracted its fair share of protesters. The ambassador and Laurenceson were on the stage as shouts broke out.
As each round of protesters had their say, including activist Drew Pavlou, and were escorted out of the hall, Xiao and Laurenceson waited and the event continued. It was a tense affair, but the event was allowed to play out, with Xiao putting his case that the China-Australia relationship was one which needed a ‘reset’.
Several months later, in August 2022, he spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra, the first time in 18 years that a Chinese ambassador had taken up an invitation to speak there.
While Xiao did his best to talk up the benefits of 50 years of Australia-China relations, it was clear that the issue of Taiwan was a sensitive one where there was “no room for compromise”.
Laurenceson describes Xiao as a “consummate professional Chinese diplomat”.
“He stuck to the script and never freelanced on Beijing’s position, either publicly or one-on-one behind closed doors. But at the same time, he made himself available in formats that most Chinese diplomats avoid.”
Recalling his appearance at UTS in June 2022, Laurenceson says while the event was disrupted by protesters, “a vast majority of the audience appreciated Ambassador Xiao’s upbeat prepared remarks, willingness to tackle tough questions and remain calm in the face of disruptions. By the time he left he was held in higher esteem than when he arrived.”
Xiao spoke at another session at UTS earlier this year, answering questions in a much more relaxed format followed by a private lunch. But, as ever, he maintained the party line on Taiwan – saying China had been “waiting patiently” for a “peaceful” reunification with Taiwan, but it would not be waiting forever.
Xiao also held regular press conferences in January each year at the embassy with the Canberra press corps. He would calmly answer questions for well over an hour – while continuing to put Beijing’s talking points.
In January 2023, he made it clear he was particularly irritated at the media coverage of the then Japanese ambassador, the outspoken Shingo Yamagami, who warned that Australia and Japan needed to be more vigilant about China in an interview on the front page of The Australian newspaper. Xiao reminded his audience that it was Japan who last tried to invade Australia, not China.
Interestingly it was Yamagami, who had gone out of his way to be seen as a friend of Australia, describing his travels around the country with folksy social media posts, who was ordered back to Tokyo in April that year – a move seen by some as having his term cut short.
In contrast, Xiao’s four-and-a-half-year term in Canberra involved an extension of his initial three-year appointment.
While it is impossible to attribute any change in policy to any one factor, Xiao would have played an important role in transmitting to Beijing the ongoing damage to the relationship from the imprisonment of journalist Cheng Lei, having been regularly pressed on the subject by media, including at his January 2023 press conference.
His term has seen Lei’s release in October 2023, the end of a range of tariffs on Australian goods to China and a visit to Australia by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in June 2024.
Xiao played on the role of ‘wine diplomacy’, often seen toasting with Australian wine and striking up a relationship with Trade Minister Don Farrell, a South Australian whose family is in the wine business.
In July this year, he made a special visit to Adelaide to farewell Farrell. The visit coincided with the Labor Party conference, an event which saw Chinese diplomats angrily complaining about the presence of a representative from Taiwan.
Xiao constantly talked up the benefits of a strong relationship between Australia and China, arguing that there is a strong complementarity in the trade ties, but he never shied away from expressing Beijing’s concerns.
In his press conference in January 2026 he warned that Beijing would be angry at any forced sale of the Port of Darwin, which was bought by Chinese company Landbridge in happier days in 2015 under a 99-year lease.
Xiao was not afraid to voice his opinions in the media. Op-eds from the ambassador have been a relatively frequent occurrence in the main newspapers – often generating a news story.
One of the most recent was an op-ed in the Nine newspapers in July where he reacted angrily to a video shown during a speech by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess when he delivered the agency’s annual threat assessment.
Xiao hit out at the video, which he declared involved “using national security as a pretext to portray China as a hypothetical enemy” and “cast aspersions about Chinese foreign interference in Australia”.
It prompted a sharp rebuke by Burgess – an uncomfortable note of tension in the final days of Xiao’s term. Several sources wondered why Xiao had chosen to speak out so strongly against the video, which was not aired to the general public.
In some ways it was a sign that while the Australia-China relationship has ‘stabilised’ it is still strained in many ways, as China expands its reach in the Pacific and has conducted a recent missile test.
In his farewell speech at the embassy recently, Xiao noted that China-Australia relations had “emerged from a low point and regained stability, resumed improvement and achieved a comprehensive turnaround”.
Australia, he said, would always “remain close to my heart”.
In contrast to the Americans, who have regularly kept the post of ambassador vacant for long periods of time, China is expected to move quickly on Xiao’s replacement, who is expected to arrive in September.
Some critics are already describing his expected successor, Liu Jinsong, the current head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Asian Affairs Department, as a hawk, while others have a more open mind.
Xiao’s high level of engagement could be a hard act to follow in a relationship which has improved, but looks set to have many strains ahead.
