diff --git a/qemu/include/qapi/qmp/qobject.h b/qemu/include/qapi/qmp/qobject.h
index 2b0bd995..d8f91c3c 100644
--- a/qemu/include/qapi/qmp/qobject.h
+++ b/qemu/include/qapi/qmp/qobject.h
@@ -99,11 +99,15 @@ static inline QType qobject_type(const QObject *obj)
     return obj->type;
 }
 
-extern QObject qnull_;
+typedef struct QNull {
+    QObject base;
+} QNull;
 
-static inline QObject *qnull(void)
+extern QNull qnull_;
+
+static inline QNull *qnull(void)
 {
-    qobject_incref(&qnull_);
+    QINCREF(&qnull_);
     return &qnull_;
 }
 
diff --git a/qemu/qapi/qobject-output-visitor.c b/qemu/qapi/qobject-output-visitor.c
index 5f81146e..cc8c85b5 100644
--- a/qemu/qapi/qobject-output-visitor.c
+++ b/qemu/qapi/qobject-output-visitor.c
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ static void qobject_output_type_any(Visitor *v, const char *name, QObject **obj,
 static void qobject_output_type_null(Visitor *v, const char *name, Error **errp)
 {
     QObjectOutputVisitor *qov = to_qov(v);
-    qobject_output_add_obj(qov, name, qnull());
+    qobject_output_add(qov, name, qnull());
 }
 
 /* Finish building, and return the root object.
diff --git a/qemu/qobject/qnull.c b/qemu/qobject/qnull.c
index 69cd1b34..cb3eeec5 100644
--- a/qemu/qobject/qnull.c
+++ b/qemu/qobject/qnull.c
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@
 #include "qemu-common.h"
 #include "qapi/qmp/qobject.h"
 
-QObject qnull_ = {
-    QTYPE_QNULL,
-    1,
+QNull qnull_ = {
+    {
+        QTYPE_QNULL,
+        1,
+    }
 };