Will Glasgow

After a four year intermission, I'm back in Beijing. I've got my foreign reporter’s press card — and with that little piece of plastic, China’s four year black-listing of Australian media ended. Here's my first story back here for @australian theaustralian.com.au/world/back-to-…

What a lot of happy snipers in Xinjiang in China’s west. “… [The] sniping competition required snipers to eliminate ‘enemy’ sentries 300 meters away in stealth, kill fleeing enemies, strike the main target, resist enemy reinforcement and exfiltrate,” @ChinaDaily reports

“Xi Jinping was in a good mood as Anthony Albanese walked into Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People.” Here’s my long-read — and a longish video report — on the Australian PM’s week in China. And here’s a bonus video of a panda I saw yesterday theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/sunsh…

ICYMI: here’s my early analysis on PM @AlboMP’s meeting — and more interestingly — lunch with Xi Jinping in Beijing. Xi has clearly decided the 🇦🇺PM is a world leader worth his time. theaustralian.com.au/nation/lunch-i…

A bit of pushback, to put it mildly, from readers on Australian Fortescue iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest’s piece in today’s @australian on China: “We’ve vilified China as an ‘enemy’; Albanese is right to make friends” Here’s a link and some comments theaustralian.com.au/nation/weve-vi…

Why stop when you’re onto a good thing? Today’s @ChinaDaily cartoon reprises the classic set up of some foreigners taking a photo of themselves in front of something in China while looking delighted. I actually find the total absence of a joke in this one hilarious.

One consequence of the “unofficial” status of Australia’s relations with Taiwan is that, in office, most 🇦🇺 officials don’t want to talk about 🇹🇼. After leaving gov, their voices return. Great to see former rep Jenny Bloomfield using her’s so well here afr.com/policy/foreign…

Next month marks one year since I returned to Beijing. Here’s a piece on what it has been like — and my thoughts on whether Australian correspondents should be based in China. I see in the comments, far from all my readers agree with me on this theaustralian.com.au/commentary/sho…

Good segment on the near absence of Australian correspondents in China by @lb_online and the @ABCmediawatch team. It’s still only me over here from 🇦🇺 media. Does a good job of exploring some of the challenges with smart comments from @mcgregorrichard and @ChuBailiang

In Australia, the job of a newspaper cartoonist is to be funny. The best are smart and funny. In China, things are different. Here’s today’s in the @ChinaDaily, in which a foreign couple take a photo of themselves having a meal in China. “Delicious!” That’s the whole cartoon.

The tea house at the Daci Temple: one of my favourite spots in Chengdu — and an excellent place to debrief on PM @AlboMP’s six night trip to China. Here’s my weekend read which I hope gives readers a bit of a sense of what it was like on the ground theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/sunsh…

So many Chinese hipsters in Chengdu! The kids here are way more stylish than in Beijing. And, now the Australian PM’s entourage has left, so few foreigners. Way less than I saw in Chongqing a few months ago.

ICYMI: Here’s a podcast I recorded in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on PM @AlboMP’s most important day of this China trip. Apologies it is a bit echoey — Stalinist architecture, designed to make individuals feel insignificant, will do that open.spotify.com/episode/6qUuap…

Absolutely brilliant piece by Cheng Lei on PM Albanese’s trip to China. When the PM next speaks to the media in Oz, I hope someone asks this question on her behalf: “Now that relations are better, is it easier or harder to broach the hard subjects?” smh.com.au/world/asia/chi…

As you would expect, it has been a panda fest in Chengdu. Here’s a link to my video report on PM @AlboMP’s trip to the world’s panda HQ. And a bonus pic of a panda hugging a koala. It was that kind of vibe theaustralian.com.au/news/why-china…

Here’s my piece on PM @AlboMP’s day on the Great Wall, following in Gough Whitlam’s footsteps. And a bonus video of the best dressed in the PM’s entourage, @stephendziedzic theaustralian.com.au/world/anthony-…

Stomp, stomp, stomp. Here’s the PLA honour guard getting in place for Australian PM @AlboMP in the Great Hall