China, there’s been a big misunderstanding, it’s not personal you know. Maybe we haven’t been expressing ourselves clearly or showing enough cultural respect? As the Middle Kingdom you may regard Australia as on the periphery of those concentric circles radiating like sound waves from Bejing. Even one of our past Prime Ministers described our position as being at the arse-end of the world. Perhaps we have not been sufficiently obsequious and you require more kow-towing and genuflecting. So sorry, we promise to do better in future.
It seems that just when we need them, we don’t seem to have any diplomats that can, well, be diplomatic. It may have seemed that, when we had a Mandarin-speaking PM, we had this trans-cultural respectful dialogue thing sorted. It appears not. The call for an enquiry into the circumstances of COVID-19 release and spread is not personal but universal. If the origin of the virus was anywhere other than China we would still want to locate the black box flight recorder for the contagion. Our intention was never to slight a powerful trading partner given to petulant paranoid responses to wilfully misinterpreted messages.
Trading contracts involve mutual obligations in order to enjoy mutual advantages. It seems our own trade negotiators have forgotten this and regard you, erroneously, as bestowing favours upon our island nation. We could be china plate mates, but enough of the huffing and puffing. I expect you still want our wine and agriculture and be able to send your Trojan ponies to our universities. So take a chill pill and just think through what is in our best mutual interests. We will make adjustments to the market share of our exports if you force us into the arms of other suitors.
As has been pointed out (Stephen Kupor, Defence council, 30/4/2020) this virus has “killed thousands, impoverished millions, threatened billions and cost trillions.” It is self-evident we would all like to know how this happened, sufficient to ensure against another such impact occurring again in our shared world.
Awesomely Astute 