Anthony Albanese is personally responsible for bringing clear skies to Shanghai during its rainy season, if you believe the quip of a top Chinese Communist Party official in his meeting with the prime minister on Sunday.

Those remarks displayed the tone of recent engagements between Australia and China in Labor’s era of stabilisation: dripping in niceties, with prickly points of difference couched in strictly diplomatic language.

Polls suggest there is strong support for the approach of emphasising the economic potential of the relationship and speaking more softly about China’s more unsettling elements.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, walk along the Bund with former Socceroo and Shanghai Port FC manager Kevin Muscat.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

But intruding into this cozy atmosphere of mutual co-operation is one of the leading China hawks in the Trump administration.

The words of Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon figure reviewing the AUKUS pact, echoed around the room on day one of Albanese’s China visit.

The Pentagon policy chief largely confirmed on Sunday what this masthead reported last week: he wants allies like Australia to be clearer about how they would support the US in potential conflicts, including but not limited to one with China over Taiwan.

The prime minister answers questions about how Australia would respond to conflict over Taiwan, during a........

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