In the wake of a near collision between US and Chinese warships in the South China Sea, defence and national security correspondent David Wroe said, in the interest of diplomacy, 'sooner or later somebody's going to have to back down'.

Australia's diplomatic freeze, prompted in part by foreign interference laws introduced under Malcolm Turnbull, appear to be thawing as Marise Payne makes the first diplomatic trip by a foreign minister to Beijing in almost three years. 

This week on Please Explain,  world editor Michael Bachelard and defence and national security correspondent David Wroe just how significant is this Beijing visit by our foreign minister really is. Tory also speaks to US correspondent Matthew Knott on the line from the US, where the midterms have just wrapped up.

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