You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's on the Front. I'm Kristinamot. It's Monday, August twenty six. Blackouts and big power bills could be our new reality as gas supplies dropped to critically low levels and coal fired power plants limp into retirement, But neither the government nor the Energy market regulator have provided the industry with
updates for how they're planning to fix the problem. That stories live right now at the Australian dot com dot au. The Israeli Defense Force launched a preemptive strike on Hesbola targets in Lebanon on Sunday. It says the onehundred rockets were designed to deter a large scale attack, but members of the Lebanese group said they carried out a raid of their own in retaliation for the death of a
top commander. Australia's ambassador to China will join four hundred other guests, including diplomats from our Five Eyes partners, at a black tie ball on the Great Wall of China in a fortnight. That's the latest from Will Glasgow, the Australian's North Asia correspondent and the first Australian journalist invited back to Beijing. In today's episode A Correspondent's Long and Winding Road back to China.
My way overordered was delicious, but I did not need that well beef noodle suit, not with the cucumber garlic dish and the spinach peanut dish and the beef coomin skewer.
That's The Australian's North Asia correspondent Will Glasgow. He's back in his old stomping ground, Beijing's Donjamen district for the first time in four years.
I got to work on my portion sizes.
I got to adjust.
Donjamen is one of Beijing's more expat friendly neighborhoods, with journalists like Will as well as diplomats and business people historically calling it home. These days, it's buzzing with locals and domestic travelers out to see the sites. It's summer in Beijing and the sky is a clear, glittering blue. Will was invited to return to Beijing by the Chinese government, and so with Camber's blessing, he set off.
So my passport's over with the Exit and Entry Immigration Office of the Public Security Bureau, and as long as I get the green light from then I've got a residency permit to allow me to be a foreign journalist to China for the next year.
Last week, Will became the first Australian journalists to be granted media credentials since twenty twenty. Will had been living and working in China for six months when in twenty twenty he returned to Australia to get his wife. The COVID nineteen pandemic, which originated in China, was gathering steam and things were getting tense. They had an exemption to return to China after a stint in hotel quarantine, but Will was advised against boarding his return flight by Australian
officials shortly before they were due to depart. Will's been living in Taipei since twenty twenty one. Will was one of dozens of foreign journalists who left China in twenty twenty. Some departures were voluntary, but most were ordered out.
China has defended its decision to expel more than a dozen American journalists and also bar them from working in Hong Kong. Beijing says that it is within its rights and has threatened further action. This latest diplomatic row was triggered last month when Washington forced Chinese state media outlets to register as foreign embassies.
Australia's relationship with the People's Republic was on the rocks too. The Government of the day, led by Scott Morrison, back to an international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, a move that didn't go down well with the Chinese Communist Party. Will A lot has happened in the last four years. Has any of that been on your mind as you've made this return to Beijing? Are you scared?
I'm not scared. I'm not scared, but it is on my mind of course, right. I mean, I didn't just get a letter from the Chinese government and then book a ticket and fly over here. I think listeners will be amazed at how long this process has gone on for. I mean I've literally been back and forth conversations with the Chinese in a quite a focused way on whether this was possible or not for more than eighteen months.
Foreign reporters, we have a lot of hurdles for how we do things, like one getting access to the internet, like everyone in China has that problem because of the great firewall that's got worse.
Right, that's just.
A simple one that frustrates every day that you're trying to do your job here. But we have the problem of getting people to speak to us, right because of the propaganda machine that demonizes as foreign media and has created such suspicion and nervousness amongst Chinese people here, and amongst Chinese experts, and even amongst Chinese government officials, who for the most part decline interview requests from foreign media
because they just see it as too risky. And one of the big challenges for Australian media as we come back to China is navigating that extreme distrust that our readers have about this place because of so much of the things that have happened over the last four years.
You know, you've been running around all over town having meetings and chatting with Chinese officials since you got back. How has your arrival been received this time around? Are you finding you having to tread more carefully the.
Various meanings I've had there's sort of different times. Some are quite kurt and brief affairs, others are much more expansive and much more of a back and forth. And one of the real striking takeaways is they're very aware that I am the first Australian journalist from Australian media returning here. They're very aware of that, right, and so there's a bit of attempts by them to flatter me for that, you know, and impress on me what a great opportunity is and impress on me my role as
a bridge builder between Australia and China. And look, I just repeat to them what my job is, which is to serve my readers, and that's what I'm here for. My job's to do my job as best I can and as accurately tell the story about China right now what it means for Australia. But it's clear there's a desire to impress on me that I'd wanted here, that I'm going to be safe. The return is being welcomed by bits of the Chinese system that said I wouldn't over do it, right, I mean, you can see the
very opposite, and I've experienced the very opposite. There's definitely parts of the Chinese system that would much rather I wasn't here right. They think that having no Australian journalists in China was a pretty wonderful situation and long may that have lasted, right, And so there's nervousness from bits of definitely well nervousness and perhaps a bit of grumbling about the return of on Australian journalists and from those parts of the Chinese state there are concerns that you know,
am I the first of a number. I mean, we'll find out.
Right coming up what's happening below the surface of Beijing's impressive facelift. We'll be back after the break.
Out for a.
Stroll along the Liangma River, which when I live Tea back in twenty twenty was well was it dump? I mean quite literally it was just full of rubbish. It was disgusting. It was building works all along it.
The Beijing will Glasgow has returned to after four years in Taipei is a different city to the one he left. That's because it's had a pretty major facelift in places.
Well, it turns out they were building a greenway park that runs all the way along the river to chow Young Park links it up and it's I have to admit, it's really beautiful. It's really popular. It's full of walkers and people fishing, and I can see up ahead people kayaking and even some people swimming, which if you tell me four years ago people would swim in this thing, I would have just well, I would have been horrified, frankly,
and be worried about their health. But people look pretty happy doing it.
Will's a dedicated runner, and he's enjoying running along the river in his old neighborhood without a mask designed to protect him from Beijing's notorious air pollution. Nowadays, the city, once dubbed airport sometimes boast air quality almost as good as Sydney. The sky has been clear and bright, with heavy summer storms washing away the last remnants of pollution. In Beijing's the glitzy chaw Young district, the once famous
Opposite House boutique hotel sits vacant. Its doors were closed just last month, a symbol of the economic uncertainty bubbling just under the surface of this gussied up city.
Yeah, it's a funny thing. In whats of ways, Beijing looks wealthier than it was when I left, right, I mean, maybe it's just so long out of the country and just the jarring sight of seeing cashed up Beijing is out in posh shopping centers and sandy turned buying lots of stuff. It's just a very visual reminder that there is a lot of money still being spent in the Chinese economy. That's real, right, But Beijing is not representative of much of China at all.
Right.
It's a very wealthy, privileged part of this warness country. And Stanleyton is a really unrepresentative part of Beijing. So you know, you have to just remember most Chinese aren't living lives anything like that. But you know, we're still talking about five percent growth, so it's not nothing. And across the Chinese economy you see this price war. It's even in dentists in Beijing, where customers are negotiating down
what they'll pay to get a tooth filling. It's happened to me in my own experience here at the gym, and just across the Chinese economy, people are arguing prices down and there's actually deflation in the Chinese economy, not inflation.
Prices are going down here. So there's a really weird mismatch in this moment of the Chinese economy between its headline economic numbers which have helped Australian exporters, and we continue the Australian economy continues to make a lot of money from There's a big gap with how people in China are feeling, and you just talk to people here and they're doing it tough. A lot of people are finding things pretty grim and they're very concerned about the
outlook here. The Chinese government knows about the problems. They're taking them very seriously and trying to fix them. But we just don't know if they're going to be successful or not. But we do know that it's going to have an enormous impact on Australia. Whether they're successful or they're not successful, or they kind of muddle through. Either way, we're going to feel it back in Australia.
Book Glasgow is The Australian's North Asia correspondent. You can read all about his longer way to return to Beijing and see pictures and videos of the city four years on right now at the Australian dot com dot au