Australian news outlets weigh up the risks and rewards of returning to China
The ABC is eager to re-establish an on-the-ground reporting presence in China after the PM's historic visit signalled a soothing of tensions with the country. But its commercial media peers Nine and News Corp are treading more carefully.
Australia's biggest news organisations have begun the process of considering whether to send correspondents back to China, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's historic meeting with President Xi Jinping marked a soothing of tensions between the two countries.
Albanese this week became the first prime minister to visit China since 2016, the culmination of fast-improving ties between Canberra and Beijing that has seen China ease trade restrictions and release Australian journalist Cheng Lei after more than three years in Chinese prison.
But whether that rapprochement may extend to China granting long-term journalist visas to Australian news outlets after a more than three-year absence of reporters on the ground in the country remains to be seen.
The China story is a perennial priority for Australia's major national news organisations — the country is Australia's largest trading partner, the world's second largest economy and a major geopolitical actor in the region and beyond.
