China sees Australia as the Western partner worth resetting with and Anthony Albanese made it happen

It’s increasingly clear that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s preferred Western leader is Anthony Albanese. The evidence? A six-day trip across China. A private lunch with Xi. The decision to prioritise Albanese over the foreign ministers of India and Russia, and more than 4 minutes of prime-time coverage of his visit on the 7pm CCTV news — China’s most influential and tightly controlled state media news bulletin. In Chinese political theatre, every action is deliberate. There’s no doubt that the message now filtering through every level of the Chinese political system is this: a re-elected Australian prime minister is friendly to…