On Monday 17 November, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping addressed both Houses of the Australian Parliament and, with his wife Peng Liyuan, was fêted at a State Dinner. On that same day, Australia and China signed a free trade agreement that had been the subject of nearly ten years of negotiation. Later that evening, Geremie R Barmé, Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World in Canberra, offered the following commentary on the gala occassion:
