So a prominent prime ministerial statement of Australian values is no longer an opportunity for a warm moment of intimacy with the once-ruling superpower. It's now a studied challenge to the rising one. Loading "So what are the beliefs that guide our interests?" Morrison posed, then went on to nominate them, grouped into seven categories. First came economic values: "We believe that the path to peace and liberty demands the pursuit of prosperity through private capital." Surely China would agree, despite its socialist past, that private capital is central today? Not so fast. Morrison "immediately touches one of the great debates under way in China at this very moment", says a leading Sinologist, Geremie Barme. "Under Xi, there's a definite move to strengthening the state sector over the private sector," he tells me. "It's increasingly taking back control." The shock retirement of digital darling Jack Ma, founder and chief of behemoth Alibaba, is a signal moment. Ma, 54 and with estimated fortune around $US40 billion, denies being pushed out by the government.

"Under Xi there is a great reordering of things and there are now Chinese Communist Party cells in every company, state owned or private, Chinese or foreign, operating in China," says Barme, formerly head of the ANU's Centre on China in the World. "It's really creepy. No one [in Western business] wants to admit it. It's not a secret - the Chinese are proud of it." Second in Morrison's Australian creed: "We believe that acceptance should not be determined by race or religion. Rather, we accept people by their words and judge them by their actions." The million or so Chinese citizens in the fast-expanding network of detention centres in China's north-west province of Xinjiang might wish for such acceptance. As it is, their sole crime is that they are members of the Uighur ethnic minority, overwhelmingly Muslims. They are locked up indefinitely and without due process. Beijing says the Uighurs are receiving helpful vocational retraining. Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit: Third: "We believe in freedom of speech, thought, association and religion," said Australia's Prime Minister. And in China? These freedoms are all protected by China's constitution, "with one caveat - in the introduction to the constitution it says you can have all of these things as long as you support the four cardinal principles", points out Barme. The most cardinal of which is that all citizens support the Chinese Communist Party unquestioningly. Item four in the Australian creed, as set out by the Prime Minister: "We believe in peaceful liberal democracy; the rule of law; separation of powers; racial and gender equality where every citizen has choice and opportunity to follow their own paths and dreams."

This concept of separation of powers is so utterly repugnant to the one-party state that its mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said in 2013 that "implementing so-called constitutional governance in China is like trying to find fish up a tree". The party controls the courts, the press, everything. There are no checks and no balances. Loading Australia's fifth belief according to Morrison: "A fair go for those who have a go." Xi's version according to Barme: "In the Chinese context, it's the China Dream, where everybody who struggles or strives will be rewarded, if not in their personal lives then in that they are contributing to the great revitalisation of the Chinese nation. It's like Hollywood gone wrong." Next in the Aussie canon: "We believe in the limits of government – because free peoples are the best foundation to show mutual respect to all," Morrison said. In the Chinese Communist Party's canon, "it's not limited government, it's called 'complete coverage government' or 'all-encompassing government'," explains Barme, who publishes on chinaheritage.net. The final value set out by Morrison: "We believe in standing by our mates, side by side with nations that believe the same things we do", and he listed over a dozen democracies. China was conspicuous by its absence. After his speech, Morrison was asked how Australia could strike the right balance between kowtowing to Beijing and conflict. "What's the strategy?" The prime minister recalled an answer that Australian businessman Ryan Stokes gave to a similar question years ago. Said Morrison: "And the question was, 'Is China a friend or a foe?' And he said: 'Well to me, they’re a customer'."