Chinese state media has launched its strongest attack yet on the Albanese government, accusing the Prime Minister of "ignorance" and declaring that chances of a reset between Beijing and Canberra are rapidly diminishing.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese drew a parallel between Russia's invasion of Ukraine and cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan, saying Vladimir Putin's failed bid to take Ukraine showed "attempts to impose change by force on a sovereign country meets resistance".
The China Daily newspaper took aim at Mr Albanese's comment, saying his answer "revealed his lack of diplomatic nous and poor grasp of political realities".
"It is hard to believe that the new Australian leader can be so ill-informed as to not know China's stance on the Ukraine crisis, which it has clarified on multiple occasions, or that he can be so ignorant as not to understand the status of Taiwan," the editorial read.
The piece also attacked the Labor government for "eagerly jumping on the US bandwagon, drumming up support for its containment policy against China".
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also criticised Mr Albanese for making "irresponsible remarks" after he warned Beijing to learn the lessons of Russia's "strategic failure" in Ukraine.
"We have repeatedly stated China's position on the Ukraine crisis. We have also stressed many times that Taiwan is not Ukraine and there is no comparison between the two," Mr Zhao said.
Mr Albanese attended this week's NATO summit in Madrid, where he backed the organisation's move to declare that China's "ambitions and coercive policies" constituted a challenge to NATO's "interests security and values".
The China Daily said there were "high hopes" of a reset when Labor took power but those hopes were "diminishing" by the day
However, it said there were "a few positives keeping the embers alive", including the meeting between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his Chinese counterpart, General Wei Fenghe.
"Since Albanese took office, Beijing has displayed goodwill in the hope that Canberra will be willing to work with it to improve bilateral ties," The China Daily said.
While Chinese state media editorials are not definitive statements of government policy, they are still ticked off by the party apparatus.
"It is a reflection on the mood in Beijing, in the government, about trying to bring the new Australian government into line with what Beijing wants," John Garrick, a senior lecturer and research fellow at Charles Darwin University said.
"It's actually concerning language because it is an intensification.
"It follows two critical incidents in late May this year where, in separate locations, Chinese fighters intercepted maritime patrol aircraft of both Australia and Canada in the western Pacific."
The government has said Chinese fighter jets moved to dangerously intercept an Australian maritime surveillance plane not long after Labor won the federal election — an issue not mentioned in the China Daily editorial.
Dr Garrick said China had been sensitive about US and allied maritime surveillance operations close to its shores, and these incidents could reflect the start of a new campaign to intensify military pressure on America's leadership in Asia by "attempting to erode its regional strategic posture and alliances".
"In this context, the China Daily language about the new Australian Prime Minister would be in line with an intensification of Beijing's strategy for dealing with US allies," Dr Garrick said.
'No reset on the cards'
The editorial's tone is also substantially more hostile than the tone adopted by China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian.
In a speech last week the ambassador reiterated that "concrete actions" were needed to reset ties, but also said China wanted to maintain a "policy of friendly cooperation" with Australia.
The Albanese government has responded coolly to verbal overtures from China in during its first six weeks in office.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said China should unwind sweeping tariffs on Australian goods if it wants to reset the relationship.
Dr Garrick said the new ambassador's "olive branch" was about the Chinese government putting out feelers on a potential relationship reset.
"It was just a testing of the water to see whether Australia's new government was prepared to make some concessions that China thinks are required for any reset to occur," he said.
"I don't think there's any easy reset on the cards here for the foreseeable future."
The leaders of Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand have been invited to the NATO summit for the first time, as the security organisation aims to strengthen relations with its partners in the Asia Pacific.
Mr Albanese is the first Australian prime minister invited to a NATO summit since 2010.
Former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard attended the 2008 and 2010 summits respectively on the war in Afghanistan.
