An aphorism often rolled out as advice to children being taunted by playground bullies runs: "it's the fish that bites that dies". Australia's leaders, and individual Australians, need to take those words to heart right now.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's because the government of China's Xi Jinping, made overconfident by its growing economic strength and military might, has cast itself in the bully's role and sees Australia as a suitable victim.
The phrase "wolf warrior diplomacy" is a polite way of describing intimidation, intellectual property theft, and the coercion of smaller and weaker countries on a grand scale by a state that refuses to accept the "rules based order" that has served humanity well since the end of World War II.
While Australia is far from being the only country that has been lined up for such treatment, few nations have experienced this to the same degree we have seen this week. Monday's obnoxious and puerile tweet by Lijian Zhao, a well-known agent provocateur in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, marked a new low, even for Beijing. That was quite an achievement given Zhao is the same individual who earlier this year was spreading the claim the coronavirus had been taken to Wuhan by US service personnel and that America was to blame for the pandemic.
If the tweet had only been the work of a rogue individual, and if his superiors had ordered him to take it down as an affront to the dignity of his own country as well as to ours, this would be well on the way to being yesterday's news. And, if the Chinese government had expressed regret over the ridiculous conduct of its wayward "diplomat", as the Prime Minister requested with perhaps ill-advised anger, this absurd and childish farrago may have even opened the door to improved relations between the two nations.
The fact that none of these things have happened, and that Beijing is doubling down on this, is open to only one interpretation. That is that China has no interest in improving relations with Australia and is, instead, working quite hard to make the situation worse by provoking an over-the-top Australian response. It is fair to say that both past and future attempts by Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg et al to patch things up have been, and will continue to be, a waste of time.
The question we should be asking is what are the Chinese really up to? Is this even about us? Could it be an attempt to put pressure on the incoming Biden administration, which is expected to take a much harder line against Beijing on human rights abuses and its dreams of regional hegemony than President Trump ever did, by targeting a country China regards as a vassal state of the US?
And then, of course, there is the fact the CCP is riding herd over more than a billion people whose growing affluence may soon give them a taste for the democratic freedoms they experience when abroad. There's nothing new about picking fights overseas to strengthen national unity at home. Harsh diplomatic language, and even possible retaliatory reactions by right-wing hotheads against Chinese living in Australia, could be just what Xi Jinping is hoping for.
That is why it is so important Australia, and Australians, don't rise to the bait. The national response needs to be measured and appropriate.
That said, given China's willingness to weaponise its trade relationships means it is an unreliable customer (and supplier for that matter), Australian producers and consumers dependent on a Chinese supply chain should reassess their positions.
Rather than having all their eggs in the China basket they should be looking for markets and suppliers of essential goods elsewhere.