The invitation said: ‘Global Multinational Corporations Summit.’ Main Topic: ‘An opening China and the World.’

So I dutifully packed my bags and headed tor Beijing. There on the 70th floor of the luxurious Shangri-la hotel I found bosses and representatives of about 30 Chinese multinationals who wanted to talk about Australia.

But apart from two recorded messages from the heads of Australian-China trade organisations, a promotion by a former Australian ambassador to China for an undrinkable Barossa wine, and myself, there was little sign of ‘the World.’

Instead we had each of the Chinese multinationals outlining their future development plans into Australia, many in areas of renewable energy and added value for mining output. Unfortunately the Australian embassy seems to have declined an invitation to participate.

As one generally finds at Chinese talkfests there was strange unwillingness to talk about past disasters and mistakes. The emphasis always has to be on optimistic plans for the future.

So in this case the disaster of Australia’s anti-China policies leading to Chinese bans on the import of certain Australian products, including perishables already landed China, was almost completely ignored.

The talk was almost always about up-trending relations, even when the uptrend was no more than a recovery from the zero figures imposed by the import ban.

I was strongly advised to keep away from political arguments. My role it seems was to talk about the wonderful 1972 breakthrough in Australia-China relations triggered by the 1971 pingpong diplomacy of former China premier, Zhou Enlai.

It was a role I was not unhappy to play. I was Tokyo correspondent for The Australian, and together with The Australian (which was more progressive in those days) we had done much to thwart Canberra’s efforts to prevent an Australian table-tennis team from going to China.

But the main takeaway from the conference were the plans for massive infrastructure investments in Africa (mainly mining) and Latin America.

The latter in particular, with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping Brazil for the recent G20 meeting and then moving to Peru to open the enormous 3.7 billion dollar Chancay port as part of a week-long Latin America tour.

The Chinese emphasis on Africa and Latin America comes after Canberra’s political quarrels with Beijing and could upset Australia’s future economic plans.

The Chancay port will be connected to Brazil by a 5,000 km network of railway lines crossing the Andes via Bolivia. Thanks mainly to China’s massive infrastructure investments, Latin American mining and food exports will be able to move directly to Asia across the Pacific.

China is replacing the US as the main political and economic player in this part of the world. Washington is not happy and is warning of the security problem with the Chancay port.

Australian embassies should be paying more attention.