A mouthpiece for Beijing has taken a furious jab at Canberra calling Australians “poor white trash” and darkly warning there will be “consequences” if we don’t play nice with China.
This morning stories about Australia appeared five times on the front page of the Global Times, a news website heavily aligned with the Chinese Communist Party. None of them were complementary.
Despite the insults and threats, the editorials claim China is being reasonable and it is Australia that is out of line.
Yet, not one of the stories addressed the issue of an Australian news reader who, it has emerged, has been detained by police in China since mid-August.
AUSTRALIA A ‘NERVOUS BIRD’
In recent months, relations between Beijing and China have become increasingly fractious.
The Australian Government was successful in calling for an international probe into the origins of the pandemic and has said it will consider giving Hong Kong residents the right to live in Australia as the former colony’s freedoms are taken away.
In just the last few weeks, Canberra has blocked the sale of Dairy Farmers milk producer Lion Dairy to a Chinese firm, signalled greater scrutiny on Chinese backed research and departments at Australian universities and warned it may halt Victoria’s co-operation with Beijing’s flagship international Belt and Road initiative. All of which has infuriated Beijing.
China has, in turn, slapped tariffs on Australian barley, blocked meat exports from a number of large Australian abattoirs, warned of racism on Australian campuses and made veiled threats it may discourage its students and tourists from heading Down Under.
When announcing the foreign relations bill last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not mention China. Rather, he said: “Arrangements that adversely affect Australia’s foreign relations or are inconsistent with our foreign policy could be prevented from proceeding or terminated”.
In a piece published this morning, the Global Times made clear it wasn’t buying it.
“China is the implicit target,” it said.
“Whenever it comes to China, Australia behaves like a nervously alerted bird which tries to find a way out, but ends up facing a dead end.”
As is often the case in Global Times’ opinion pieces and editorials, Australia was painted as being a slavish follower of US policy and was “giving up the opportunity to think and act independently”.
“It finds fault with China on almost all fronts where it cannot live without China, trapping itself in an embarrassing dilemma.”
It said while some Australians blamed China for the “frosty relations,” Canberra was in fact “the hostile one”.
But it then went on to threaten Australia with retaliation.
“If Australia views this close economic relationship as well as China-Australia collaboration in other sectors as a burden rather than an opportunity, it will face far-reaching consequences it cannot bear. When that happens, the US won’t come to its rescue.”
There has been concern about the influence China is bringing to bear on the institutions it funds. Last week, it emerged textbooks which showed Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic – despite the fact it is an independent nation – were being used in Victorian schools.
www.news.com.au
This morning stories about Australia appeared five times on the front page of the Global Times, a news website heavily aligned with the Chinese Communist Party. None of them were complementary.
Despite the insults and threats, the editorials claim China is being reasonable and it is Australia that is out of line.
Yet, not one of the stories addressed the issue of an Australian news reader who, it has emerged, has been detained by police in China since mid-August.
AUSTRALIA A ‘NERVOUS BIRD’
In recent months, relations between Beijing and China have become increasingly fractious.
The Australian Government was successful in calling for an international probe into the origins of the pandemic and has said it will consider giving Hong Kong residents the right to live in Australia as the former colony’s freedoms are taken away.
In just the last few weeks, Canberra has blocked the sale of Dairy Farmers milk producer Lion Dairy to a Chinese firm, signalled greater scrutiny on Chinese backed research and departments at Australian universities and warned it may halt Victoria’s co-operation with Beijing’s flagship international Belt and Road initiative. All of which has infuriated Beijing.
China has, in turn, slapped tariffs on Australian barley, blocked meat exports from a number of large Australian abattoirs, warned of racism on Australian campuses and made veiled threats it may discourage its students and tourists from heading Down Under.
When announcing the foreign relations bill last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not mention China. Rather, he said: “Arrangements that adversely affect Australia’s foreign relations or are inconsistent with our foreign policy could be prevented from proceeding or terminated”.
In a piece published this morning, the Global Times made clear it wasn’t buying it.
“China is the implicit target,” it said.
“Whenever it comes to China, Australia behaves like a nervously alerted bird which tries to find a way out, but ends up facing a dead end.”
As is often the case in Global Times’ opinion pieces and editorials, Australia was painted as being a slavish follower of US policy and was “giving up the opportunity to think and act independently”.
“It finds fault with China on almost all fronts where it cannot live without China, trapping itself in an embarrassing dilemma.”
It said while some Australians blamed China for the “frosty relations,” Canberra was in fact “the hostile one”.
But it then went on to threaten Australia with retaliation.
“If Australia views this close economic relationship as well as China-Australia collaboration in other sectors as a burden rather than an opportunity, it will face far-reaching consequences it cannot bear. When that happens, the US won’t come to its rescue.”
There has been concern about the influence China is bringing to bear on the institutions it funds. Last week, it emerged textbooks which showed Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic – despite the fact it is an independent nation – were being used in Victorian schools.
Australia becoming “poor white trash” – China
A mouthpiece for Beijing has taken a furious jab at Canberra calling Australians “poor white trash” and darkly warning there will be “consequences” if we don’t play nice with China.
www.news.com.au
