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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 ri

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.

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.