Kevin Rudd's Mandarin words impress China APEC delegates

Article adapted from：Herald Sun

The Labor leader stunned President Hu Jintao with a two-minute recounting of his personal history at an APEC lunch attended by a "who's who" of Australian business.

Mr Rudd spoke of his life as a diplomat in China, his love for the booming country, and his family's close ties to the region.

Just a day after Mr Howard tied his fortunes to George W. Bush and the US, Mr Rudd made it clear that the rising Asian superpower was the focus of his affection.

Speaking fluently to the Chinese leader in his own language, Mr Rudd upstaged Mr Howard's announcement of Australia's single biggest export contract.

A former diplomat with many years' experience in Asia, Mr Rudd gave President Hu a personal history of his links to China, drawing on the experiences of his wife Therese, his daughter Jessica, and sons Nicholas and Marcus.

The speech began in English. Then, breaking into Mandarin, Mr Rudd said: "Together with my wife and little daughter, I went to work in Beijing in the 1980s.

"My wife and I have a particular love for Beijing. We love the feeling of Beijing. We love the people of Beijing, and of course, its culture.

"Twenty years later, the little girl that we took to Beijing this April married a young man from the Australian Chinese community.

"My son has already been to Shanghai's Fundan University to study. I also have a little boy, our youngest, who is in his early years of high school. He is really, really naughty -- he doesn't like doing his homework. But he has already begun his study of Chinese."

Under the gas deal, China's biggest energy company will buy up to $45 billion of liquefied natural gas from Woodside Petroleum over the 20 years.

While Wednesday was George W. Bush Day at APEC, yesterday belonged to President Hu -- and Kevin Rudd.