The appeasement of totalitarian regimes is never a brilliant idea, as history has reminded us on many occasions, including, of course, during the run-up to the second world war. In that instance, the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain provided satirists, novelists and film-makers plenty of material for the coming years with his iconic moment of stepping down from the airplane back from Munich on a blustery morning clutching a piece of worthless paper as he proudly announced ‘Peace in our time’ to the assembled news hounds.

Interestingly, there is one school of thought that suggests that rather being a gullible fool, Mr Chamberlain was in fact playing a cunning game of what is now referred to as ‘4-D chess’, in which the British prime minister was only pretending to be duped by the Führer and his promise of peace in order to buy more time for the Allies to arm themselves and to re-industrialise Britain for the coming inevitable conflict.

Which brings us to the latest example of a somewhat gormless prime minister toddling off to a gabfest with the dictator of militarily aggressive foreign power.

In undertaking his trip to the Middle Kingdom with such fanfare, Mr Albanese presumably thinks he is averting the possibility of future conflict with communist China by being all pally-pally with the ruthless dictator of this belligerent totalitarian regime.

Mr Albanese’s trip is being sold as a major trade mission, with a bevy of ‘business leaders’ tagging along for the drunken prawns. But thus far, most of the trade talk appears to be based on wishful thinking and the comical fantasy of ‘green hydrogen’, ‘green steel’ and Australia becoming a ‘renewables superpower’. Quite how Mr Jinping manages not to spit out his rice wine in mirth every time he hears these ludicrous expressions is a mystery.

For the sad truth is that this entire fiasco is an inversion of the Neville Chamberlain 4-D chess theory. What is happening here is that rather than us buying time to re-industrialise ourselves, the Chinese are buying time for Mr Albanese to complete his obsessive project of de-industrialising Australia. Indeed, everything that the Albanese Labor government has on its plate serves the interests of the Chinese communist party – we are weakening our economy, destroying what’s left of our manufacturing and industrial capabilities, and crippling our energy supplies all in the name of the climate change alarmist campaign of achieving net zero emissions.

At the same time, we are making our new and ridiculously expensive energy infrastructure entirely dependant on Chinese equipment and technology via batteries, windmills and solar farms. The entire mad climate change agenda destroys Australian prosperity at the same time as enriching the Chinese military industrial complex.

No wonder Mr Albanese has been invited for a record-breaking six-day visit. The Chinese communists simply can’t get enough of him.

And all the while, no contact whatsoever between Mr Albanese and President Donald Trump.

Future historians will argue over the merits of this trip – Mr Albanese’s fourth such dalliance with Xi Jinping – at a time when Australia’s most important military ally and Beijing’s number one adversary, the USA, is eyeing up whether or not Australia under Labor actually pulls its own weight in our military alliance. Future historians may also be puzzled as to why Mr Albanese seems far more comfortable trotting around the Great Hall of China than strutting the corridors of the White House.

After all, it was only a couple of months ago that Chinese warships were happily letting live rounds of ammunition with impunity off our shores, to the alarm of a Virgin Airways commercial pilot who happened to spot this outrageous and militarily intimidating action.

Students of Chinese history are only too familiar with the concept of vassal states, those pretend-independent nations who do not need to be conquered by force because they serve the interests of the Emperor  without having to be told to.

In return, the puppet leaders of those vassal states get wined and dined at lavish banquets whenever they make their annual pilgrimage to the gilded halls of the Forbidden City.

Whoever is playing 4-D chess, it’s certainly not Mr Albanese.