An 11-second video of Anthony Albanese going for a walk in Shanghai has gone viral on Chinese social media — with the country’s leader even remarking on the clip of the “handsome boy”.
Will Glasgow, North Asia correspondent with The Australian, happened to spot the Prime Minister with his security detail during a morning walk on The Bund waterfront on Sunday, and uploaded a brief video to X.
“Look who it is! Prime Minister,” he says. “How are you? Enjoying your trip?”
Mr Albanese smiles and waves and gives a friendly response as he walks past.
Glasgow wrote that upon finding out who it was, many Shanghainese “couldn’t believe how light his security detail was — or that he would talk to passers by as he did”.
One woman told the reporter she was shocked the PM would say hello to a journalist.
“This could never happen in China,” she said.
The video has since made headlines in the country.
Glasgow said he shared it on X and with some friends on WeChat, and soon it began to go viral on Douyin, China’s domestic version of TikTok.
One Chinese online news headline read, “Australian Prime Minister Surprises at the Bund of Shanghai! Interacting with passers-by is amazing, and the sports T-shirt is super cool!”
The video garnered so much attention, Chinese Premier Li Qiang even brought it up during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People on the final day of the trip, telling Mr Albanese he had become a social media sensation.
Mr Albanese was greeted with hundreds of military personnel for an elaborate ceremonial welcome before his meeting with Premier Li on Tuesday.
The Chinese leader told reporters he considered Mr Albanese as an “old friend” after meeting him four times in the past year.
“There are many sharing short videos about your trip to China … including a video of you running along the river with a yellow jersey,” he said.
“People were saying that we have a handsome boy coming from Australia.”
Following the successful meeting, Premier Li announced Australia and China were set to resume annual leaders’ meetings, further thawing frozen relations between the two countries.
Mr Albanese previously flagged he would be asking Premier Li to restart the yearly dialogues, which broke down over disputes between China and the former government over the origins of Covid.
The last official annual leaders’ meeting was held in November 2019 when Scott Morrison met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Bangkok.
Mr Albanese was the first Australian PM to visit China since 2016.
The announcement of the resumption of leadership talks followed an hour-long meeting between Mr Albanese and President Xi Jinping on Monday.
Mr Albanese hailed the conversation as “very successful” with both leaders discussing human rights, escalation of threats against Taiwan, and trade sanctions.
— with NCA NewsWire