From Leinster House to Beijing: how Micheál Martin used a China trip to steady his leadership
Taoiseach Micheál Martin met with Chinese premier Li Qiang in Bejing during the week. Picture: Government of Ireland/PA
For a man who spent months fighting accusations of a centralisation of power, Micheál Martin's first foreign trip of 2026 to China was serendipitous.
Having survived internal dissent in Fianna Fáil over the Jim Gavin presidential election debacle, Mr Martin was perhaps glad of the invitation to meet president Xi Jinping in Beijing in the first week of the year, maybe finding a warmer welcome in The Great Hall of the People than in the de Valera Room in Leinster House.
A common theme of the trip has been the flux in which the world has found itself.
Chinese posturing over Taiwan was expected to be the big international talking point a week ago, but Donald Trump's decision to raid and seize the leader of Venezuela put a new emphasis on things.
Venezuela is an ally to China and Ireland's links to the US are well known but, if the two men felt any divided loyalties, they did not let it show.
Mr Xi spoke of a new blueprint for Irish-Chinese relations, of partnerships in AI and third-level education, and he railed at "unilateral bullying" which had upset the rules-based international order, a phrase uttered so many times in Beijing and Shanghai that it had almost begun to autocomplete as it was said.
Mr Martin, for his part, spoke of how Ireland and China are ancient civilisations, and how there is a strong relationship on a personal and trading level between the two countries.
These things are tightly choreographed, and Mr Xi is no Donald Trump in terms of freewheeling or answering questions. A handshake, a few lines, and out into the sun-filled but bitter Beijing air.
The Great Hall stands imposingly to the west of Tiananmen Square and the tomb of China's founding father Mao Zedong, and directly opposite one of the city's biggest tourist attractions: The Forbidden City.
The city, an interconnected series of courtyards and halls, was once only accessible by emperors, their families, concubines, and most high-ranking officials, but it is now a Unesco World Heritage site.
At one point, Mr Martin passed by the Hall of Supreme Harmony and, given the name, may have thought of inviting those who had called for his removal as leader of Fianna Fáil.
The whistlestop tour saw the Taoiseach shown a room in which emperors had learned math.
Upon hearing this, the Taoiseach called forward Virgin Media Political Correspondent Gavan Reilly — a one-time Irish mathlete — to see how he fared.
Back at the Taoiseach's hotel, inappropriately called The Kerry, Mr Martin took part in a business dinner which hammered home Irish interests: Trade.
China is Ireland's largest trading partner in Asia. However, given last year's tariff war, there is a largely unspoken but very real acknowledgement that Ireland needs a support plan, lest the US president train his eye on American investment in Ireland again.
That reality, as Mr Trump unilaterally takes control of Venezuelan oil, creates a nuance of this trip that Mr Martin had to grapple with.
On multiple occasions, Mr Martin decried the Maduro regime as brutal and oppressive. He accused it of stealing an election, never once acknowledging the irony of saying this in China of all places. Such is the balancing act of a head of government.
Having engaged with Mr Xi, the Taoiseach then met with the second- and third-highest ranking members of the president's party, chairman Zhao Leji and premier Li Qiang.
The meeting with Mr Qiang saw the Taoiseach heralded into the Great Hall by a military band playing before a state banquet, at which the pair ate creamy lobster soup, crispy marinated beef, choy sum, and Chaozou-style steamed yellow croaker rolls, while being serenaded with a host of Irish songs by the same band, which fittingly finished on or perhaps Li, after its host.
A night-time flight to Shanghai saw another theme of the week re-emerge: Security.
Everywhere Mr Martin went, there were layers of security. This confounded travelling journalists who are used to a much more casual arrangement for accessing the Taoiseach.
In Shanghai, the focus switched to the economic with a particular focus on tourism. China's growing middle class is a target for both travel to Ireland and for Irish food in China. Both Tourism Ireland and Bord Bia held events attended by the Taoiseach in Shanghai, one of which featured boxes of live crabs and lobster as decorations.
The first character in the Chinese word for Ireland translates to "love" and ,while this week wasn't a transcontinental love-in, it was very clear that both governments see closer ties in the future. What that looks like will become clearer in the coming years.
- Paul Hosford is the Acting Political Editor for the
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