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I was amazed by China's behaviour in their trade war with Australia. They banned our coal. We were treated to the sight of Australia's coal transport ships as

I was amazed by China's behaviour in their trade war with Australia. They banned our coal. We were treated to the sight of Australia's coal transport ships as far as the eye could see sitting outside of China's ports. It caused havoc on the Australian side at the time, paying for all that shipping time, figuring out what to do with all the unwanted coal. But China used that coal in their coal fired power stations. It was their winter. They were literally freezing in the dark. It went on for months. FWIW, the usual take is Australia won that war. Australia didn't do anything in retaliation. We keep buying from China when they were cheapest, and busied ourselves by seeking out new markets for our products elsewhere. We would have been better off if it hadn't happened, but there was an upside - we developed new markets. The trigger for all this was our then Prime Minister sided with Trump, in blaming China engineering COVID. True or not, poking the Pooh Bear like that was pure insanity. We got rid of that prime minister as soon at the next election. Xi does take stands on principle, and he is willing to bear a lot of pain while doing so. If you doubt that, look at how he handled COVID. I don't think there can be much doubt that in a fight about principles between Trump and Xi, who is the most principled man. It isn't even close.

pestatije 2y ago
they never blamed China for engineering covid...they wanted an international-led investigation into it and i think the australian position was spot on on the right point
- defrost 2y ago
  The broad Australian Government ( the "they" of the above comment? ) didn't .. but the then Australian Prime Minister personally very much did so. Initially in the public sphere he was forcefully calling for an independant body with "powers equivalent to those of a weapons inspector to avoid another catastrophic pandemic" while rumoured (ie leaked gossip) to be channelling the worst US Trump first term sinophobia in phone calls to world leaders drumming up support. I separated Australia from the then PM Scott Morrison delibrately, in a number of ways he acted as a law unto himself not as a representative of the nation as a whole. I accept that his off the record attacks on China are hearsay, but to those that followed the people and attitudes they make sense and account for the reactions of China that shortly followed when the off public record discussions made the diplomatic rounds and got back to Xi. Even the Chinese got on board with an international investigation: Last night the World Health Assembly (WHA) passed a European Union motion calling for a "comprehensive, independent and impartial" investigation into how the pandemic started and the international health response. A record 137 countries — including both Australia and China — ended up co-sponsoring the motion, giving it overwhelming international endorsement. ~ Wed 20 May 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/wha-passes-coronavirus-investigation-australia-what-cost/12265896 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/wha-passes-coronaviru... that wasn't the cause of Australia - China falling out. That was the public insinuation that COVID was an engineered weapon and the behind the scenes name calling and accusations from the Australian PM.

pestatije 2y ago

they never blamed China for engineering covid...they wanted an international-led investigation into it and i think the australian position was spot on on the right point

defrost 2y ago
The broad Australian Government ( the "they" of the above comment? ) didn't .. but the then Australian Prime Minister personally very much did so. Initially in the public sphere he was forcefully calling for an independant body with "powers equivalent to those of a weapons inspector to avoid another catastrophic pandemic" while rumoured (ie leaked gossip) to be channelling the worst US Trump first term sinophobia in phone calls to world leaders drumming up support. I separated Australia from the then PM Scott Morrison delibrately, in a number of ways he acted as a law unto himself not as a representative of the nation as a whole. I accept that his off the record attacks on China are hearsay, but to those that followed the people and attitudes they make sense and account for the reactions of China that shortly followed when the off public record discussions made the diplomatic rounds and got back to Xi. Even the Chinese got on board with an international investigation: Last night the World Health Assembly (WHA) passed a European Union motion calling for a "comprehensive, independent and impartial" investigation into how the pandemic started and the international health response. A record 137 countries — including both Australia and China — ended up co-sponsoring the motion, giving it overwhelming international endorsement. ~ Wed 20 May 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/wha-passes-coronavirus-investigation-australia-what-cost/12265896 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/wha-passes-coronaviru... that wasn't the cause of Australia - China falling out. That was the public insinuation that COVID was an engineered weapon and the behind the scenes name calling and accusations from the Australian PM.