A photo that says 1000 words. When I worked in Beijing I was once asked if I could help a private entrepreneur get into a group photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping – “doesn’t matter how far back”. I said I couldn’t help.

Former Victorian premier Dan Andrews, top far right, joins a group photo with Xi Jinping (centre front) and world leaders including Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, before the military parade.Credit: AP

Much easier if you’re a former Australian state premier at a time of China needing Western endorsement.

Or maybe that was the set-up; Dan Andrews cops flak from the media back home but gets financial reward from his business plus a pat on the back from “big business”, while the Labor government enjoys the fruits of ambivalence. Because to the Chinese, of course, his attendance was tacitly approved by our leadership.

Officials are seen very differently in China compared to the West. Ours are public servants. There, the public serves them. Photo ops with Xi are worth 1000 times more than snaps with Albo.

“Lives and careers have been ruined over the spelling on a leader’s welcome banner”, I was once told by a Chinese state-owned company executive, stressing about the exact protocol of a major meeting.

Given the way........

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