Departure of Australian journalists from China seen as ‘terrible blow to mutual understanding’
- Australian media has been left without a presence on the mainland for the first time since 1973 after Bill Birtles and Michael Smith fled for their safety
- Their exit marks a new low in fraying ties between Canberra and Beijing, and closes one of a dwindling number of channels for engagement
For nearly 50 years, Australian media maintained an uninterrupted presence in mainland China. On Tuesday, that run – which began soon after Canberra and Beijing normalised ties in December 1972 – came to a sudden and dramatic conclusion after the last two journalists working for Australian media fled the mainland in fear of their safety.
The abrupt exit of correspondents Bill Birtles and Michael Smith following a days-long diplomatic stand-off between the two governments marks a new low in the downward spiral of Sino-Australian relations, closing one of a dwindling number of channels for engagement and understanding between the two countries.
“The Australian government was right to fear for their safety,” said Richard McGregor, a former China correspondent for the Financial Times who is now a senior fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute. “Their effective expulsion means the Australian media now has no accredited journalists in China, for the first time since 1973, and it is hard to see when any might be allowed back in – or, more to the point, when their organisations will feel safe about sending them back in.”
Stephen Hutcheon, a Beijing correspondent for Australian newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in the mid-1990s, said Australian media would no longer be able to “tell stories about the struggles and successes of [Chinese] people in their daily lives”.
“We’ll miss out on stories about business, stories about sport and culture, stories that may have nothing to do with politics,” he said.
Birtles and Smith, respectively correspondents for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Australian Financial Review, arrived in Sydney on Tuesday following negotiations by Australian diplomatic officials to secure their departure from China after the two men became entangled in a national security investigation.
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While rocky for some time, ties have rapidly deteriorated since Canberra in April proposed an international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, a move Beijing said unfairly singled out China.
“I know Cheng Lei, but not especially well, and Mike Smith in Shanghai had only met her once in his life,” Birtles told the ABC after his return to Australia. “It felt very, very political. It very much felt like a diplomatic tussle in the broader Australia-China relationship rather than anything specific related to that case.”
Rowan Callick, former correspondent in Beijing with The Australian, described the departures as a “terrible blow to mutual understanding”.
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“China is an extraordinarily important country for Australia, the biggest trading partner by far, the biggest source of international students and tourists, and sometimes the biggest source of migrants,” he said.
“The increasingly constrained and directed nature of China’s own media – with President Xi Jinping famously insisting that Chinese journalists’ ‘family name is Party’ – has steadily reinforced the need and appetite for considered, informed and empathetic coverage of events and people in China.”
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said the developments represented an “extraordinary erosion of media freedoms”, taking particular issue with China’s attempt to bar the two Australian correspondents from leaving.
“Such actions by the Chinese government amount to appalling intimidatory tactics that threaten and seek to curtail the work of foreign journalists based in China, who now face the threat of arbitrary detention for simply doing their work, and difficult circumstances that make it untenable to remain in the country,” the FCCC said.
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Zhao, the foreign ministry spokesman, attempted to play down the threat to journalists’ access, saying Beijing would stick “to the basic principle of opening up”.
“China always welcomes foreign journalists, including those hired by Chinese media outlets, to work and report in the country,” he said.
There are still other Australian citizens working as journalists in China for American, British and other media companies.
Numerous foreign journalists in the country have been denied visa renewals in recent months, and given temporary permission to work using expired credentials. Other members of the foreign press corps have also reported incidents of intimidation by state security agents seeking information on their reporting, but the circumstances of the Australians’ effective expulsion are unusual.
The two Australian journalists had spent a number of days sheltering at Australia’s embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shanghai after Ministry of State Security agents visited Birtles at his home and told him he was wanted for questioning in relation to a national security case, according to the ABC.
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Birtles had earlier been advised to leave the country by Australian officials and was due to fly home on Thursday before being barred from leaving the country, the national broadcaster reported. He and Smith were reportedly allowed to leave after Australian officials persuaded their Chinese counterparts to lift the exit bans in exchange for the men undergoing questioning at the Australian diplomatic missions.
The journalists were asked about Cheng from CGTN during those sessions, although they were told they were being treated as persons of interest, not suspects themselves, according to Australian media reports.
Will Glasgow, a correspondent with The Australian, had been due to return to China on Sunday but did not board his flight following advice to his employer by the Australian government.
The ABC, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have been unable to secure visas for their incoming correspondents since last year, although it remains unclear if that is because of restrictions due to the pandemic.
Chris Buckley and Philip Wen, Australians who work for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, respectively, were also forced to leave China after being denied visa renewals within the past year.
Chinese state-run news organisations Xinhua and People’s Daily have operated bureaus in Sydney since 2018 and 2013, respectively. Major Chinese-language media groups native to Australia include the Chinese Newspaper Group and Global CAMG Media Group, which is part-owned by Chinese state media.
Former Beijing correspondent Callick, now an industry fellow at Griffith University’s Asia Institute, said it had previously been a “challenge” but “doable” to work as a journalist in mainland China. He said it was rare for foreign correspondents – as opposed to their Chinese associates – to be directly questioned by security agents unless they had travelled to a sensitive area such as Xinjiang.
“Having to shift to living in an embassy or consulate for safety is an extraordinary measure – a last resort that is clearly not sustainable, and harks back to Cultural Revolution days,” Callick said.
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Alistair Nicholas, an independent trade consultant who has advocated greater engagement with China, lamented that the latest developments would further damage bilateral relations.
“It means Australian perceptions of China will now be shaped by other foreign media and Australia’s China correspondents reporting on China from afar,” he said. “Without on-the-ground reporting from an Australian perspective it will be hard for our policymakers to understand the nuances of what is happening in China that should help us shape policy.”
Nick Bisley, professor of international relations at Melbourne’s La Trobe University and member of the advisory council for the China Matters think tank, predicted even “broader disillusionment with China in the minds of Australian policymakers and the general public”.
“Polling has shown attitudes towards China have soured in recent years and this is likely to continue that trend,” Bisley said. “It certainly underscores the point that Xi Jinping’s China does not care much for what people in other countries may think about it, which I suspect it will come to regret over time.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
