THIS week's meeting between China's President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is the first such occasion since 2016, when Malcolm Turnbull was PM.
Since then, Beijing's attitudes towards Australia have harden considerably, and our nation has re-positioned itself accordingly.
The AUKUS agreement and the subsequent acquisition of nuclear submarines is one consequence. So too is a reinvigoration of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue - otherwise known as "the quad" - formed by Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
Our defence ties with Tokyo itself have also strengthened.
China's "wolf warrior" diplomacy has also pushed Australia and the US into renewing historical ties with Pacific states, and all that implies with the "encirclement" of China by potentially hostile, and united, neighbours.
Attacking Western powers has been a tool of China's domestic policy since Chairman Mao and his talk of "paper tigers" and "capitalist running dogs". Invoking foreign enemies is an obvious way of distracting attention away from what is happening on the home front.
Now that President Xi has strengthened his grip on the Chinese Communist Party, he may be inclined to seek a more harmonious relationship with the West.
One complication is the "no limits" friendship that China declared with Russia in March this year, just weeks after President Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
The election of the Labor government in May - and the more nuanced language towards China of Mr Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong - may also have played an important role in this potential warming of previously frosty relations.
It is an open question whether President Xi would have met with Scott Morrison - or his successor, Peter Dutton - given some of the things that were said and done when the Coalition was in office.
Mr Albanese seems to have kept Australia's ground on the big issues.
His government has given no indication Australia will cut back on future defence spending either; quite the reverse.
If dialogue is to resume it must be on mutually acceptable terms. The only reason China may be moving onto a new diplomatic track is because the west, led by Australia's example, won't be coerced. Successful bullies just keep on bullying. That's as true on the global stage as it in the schoolyard.
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