The first thing the new Chinese ambassador to Australia Liu Jinsong did on arrival in Sydney yesterday was to publicly pose at the airport with two prominent United Front figures – Qian Qiguo, Chairman of the Australian Alliance for Peaceful Chinese Reunification, and Tian Fei of the Oceanic Alliance for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China.
A public airport photo and an embassy post
The photograph—taken at the airport and published on the Chinese embassy’s Chinese‑language website—was the ambassador’s first visible act on Australian soil. The image linked Liu immediately with organised United Front groups in Australia that, as the reporting states, are “utilised in Australia and elsewhere around the world to promote the Chinese Communist Party’s core interests, not Australia’s.” The reporting also notes plainly: “There’s nothing illegal about these meetings and public displays, but they shouldn’t be ignored.”
Liu’s early public instructions to Canberra
Shortly after arriving, Liu issued a statement combining diplomatic pleasantries with pointed expectations. In that note he urged Australia to respect Beijing’s “core interests and major concerns” and said that would be done by Canberra “reserving differences.” The source observes that “none of these requirements imposed on Canberra is reciprocated by Beijing,” noting that Chinese ministers, officials and diplomats routinely air their differences with Australia.
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See what we buildUnited Front mobilisation: Tian Fei, Qian Qiguo, and Beijing conferences
Two of the men who met Liu at the airport have recent Beijing connections. Tian Fei had “only recently returned from China after attending the 11th World Conference of Overseas Chinese Associations, held in Beijing on 13 and 14 July,” where he was interviewed by China News Service. At that conference, delegates heard from Li Ganjie, head of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, who urged them to “actively contribute to the great cause of national rejuvenation” and “enhance unity and cooperation among overseas Chinese associations.”
The reporting also cites instructions published at the end of July: “Xi called for fully implementing the Party’s policies on work related to Chinese nationals overseas and encouraging overseas Chinese, as well as returned overseas Chinese and their families, to leverage their unique strengths in support of the cause of national reunification.” The source links those directives directly to the rationale for the embassy’s airport photo and the likelihood that mobilisation of overseas Chinese will be a central element of Liu’s tenure.
Liu’s diplomatic record and public profile
The reporting describes Liu as a “seasoned diplomat” with some 30 years in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, with postings in Thailand, Japan, Britain, India and as ambassador to Afghanistan. It records a media depiction that he has a “wolf warrior” reputation and highlights a November 2025 engagement with Masaaki Kanai, director‑general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. That meeting, the account notes, was framed domestically by Chinese state media through a photograph of Liu “hands in pockets, looking down at the Japanese diplomat,” which the reporting says reinforced a narrative of great‑power prestige.
The piece draws a direct link between that cultivated public profile and expectations that Liu will take an assertive stance in Australia, noting that “the immediate public display of affection with United Front members should also be a clear signal as to the assertive stance Liu will take.”
What this means for Australian politicians, Australian society, and the National Intelligence Community
- Australian politicians: The reporting says Liu’s arrival “will present stepped‑up challenges for Australian politicians,” given his early public demands on Canberra and the embassy’s visible connections with United Front groups.
- Australian society: The piece signals an expectation of intensified efforts to mobilise overseas Chinese in Australia, and cautions that such mobilisation serves CCP interests, “including its efforts to incorporate Taiwan.”
- National Intelligence Community: The reporting explicitly warns that these developments are a challenge for “our National Intelligence Community,” in the context of increased regional assertiveness by Beijing—most recently exemplified in the source by “last month’s testing of a submarine‑launched nuclear‑capable ballistic missile.”
Taken together, the facts in the reporting outline a dossier of signals: an ambassador arriving with a carefully staged public embrace of United Front figures, explicit early demands on the host government to “respect Beijing’s ‘core interests and major concerns’,” recent Beijing directives to mobilise overseas Chinese, and a public persona that Chinese state media have amplified. The concrete question the reporting leaves on the table is whether Canberra’s institutions—political, civic and intelligence—will treat these public acts as routine diplomacy or as the opening moves of a concerted outreach and influence campaign to be actively monitored and countered.
