ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE
Submitted by Dr. Binoy Kampmark
Clay foot diplomacy is all the rage in Canberra, and the Australian government has become a solid practitioner. Having stuck its neck out across continents and seas to proclaim the need to investigate China over the origins of the novel coronavirus, the Morrison government now finds itself in the tightest of corners. Very much one to bite the hand that feeds it, Australia is trying to prove in international relations that you can, from behind the curtain, provoke your largest trading partner while still hoping to trade with it.
China is not of that view, seeing Australia’s policy towards it in recent years as a log of disagreeable actions. The Chinese tech giant Huawei was excluded from its 5G network. Ten investment deals across a range of industries have also been blocked, including animal husbandry, infrastructure and agriculture. They have seen Australia strident on what China regards as matters of domestic concern: Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Australia is also finding itself ever more comfortable in relationships such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, where it keeps company with the United States, Japan and India in an arrangement that is well on the way to becoming “openly anti-China”.
The ones to endure the “deep reflexion” demanded of Australia by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian have not been politicians. It has fallen to the importers and exporters to receive Beijing’s directed fury. In May, the Australia-China barley trade was all but eliminated by tariffs in the order of 80.5 percent. In November, tariffs ranging from 107 to 200 percent were imposed on Australian wine, a sorry blow for Australian wine makers salivating at courting some 52 million wine drinkers in the PRC. Australia’s largest wine company, Treasury Wine Estates, claimed to have received a tariff rate of 169.3 percent. As the managing director of Clare Valley’s Taylor Wines, Mitchell Taylor, explained, “A tariff of this scale will basically kill the industry overnight.” Winemakers in neighbouring New Zealand, and those in France and Chile, will be happy to see a rival in the Chinese market so dramatically shrunk.
Australian farmers and traders are baffled and more than a touch concerned that Canberra has misjudged the situation. Feeble suggestions occupy ministerial briefs about whether China can be taken to the World Trade Organisation. Trade minister Simon Birmingham has been unable to secure a line with his Chinese counterparts. There is not much by way of tea and conversation being had by the two sides.
Then came a doctored image from Chinese political computer graphic artist Fu Yu. It’s in the old image of propaganda accounts: use a murdering, invading soldier as a prop. Find a suitable, vulnerable civilian. In this case, the picture centres upon what is supposed to be an Australian soldier and an Afghan child. The soldier has his blood smeared knife pressed against the child’s throat. The child is holding a lamb. The picture is helpfully captioned: “Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace.”
Provocative and apt enough: the Australian effort in Afghanistan, along with those of other forces, has been marked by an irregular war of relentless savagery that has tended to elude domestic understanding. Australia’s own role has been distinguished by a lengthy spell of action by special forces that were found by the recently released Brereton war crimes inquiry to have committed a goodly number of civilian killings.
China’s foreign ministry sensed an opportunity. On November 30, Zhao Lijian tweeted the image. “Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers,” he chided. “We strongly condemn such acts & call for holding them accountable.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison, instead of ignoring it as a provocative prod with hook attached, was all indignant and promptly fell for the hook. “The post made today, the repugnant post made today of a falsified image of an Australian soldier threatening a young child with a knife, a post made on an official Chinese government account, posted by the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is truly repugnant.”
In making such a statement, Morrison gave the coverage on Australian atrocities and misdeeds in Afghanistan even more air. He returned to hollow notions of noble soldiers in uniform sent overseas to do kindly things, ignoring their nastier missions. Australian Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Frances Adamson called upon the Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye to lodge an official complaint. Pleas were made to Twitter to take down the image but on this occasion, the social media platform has not been for turning. An apology from China’s ministry of foreign affairs is also being sought.
Such moves have led to a cycle of mocking and rebuke. “On what grounds does Morrison feel angry over the use of this cartoon by the spokesperson of Chinese FM?” asked Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Global Times, a state-owned publication. For his part, Fu felt didactic, telling Morrison “to make sure his Government’s military force becomes more disciplined to avoid any similar international tragedy”.
Having found himself in full righteous gear, Morrison has unconvincingly called “on China to re-engage in … dialogue. This is how countries must deal with each other to ensure we can deal with any issues in our relationship, consistent with our national interests and respect for each other’s sovereignty. Not engaging in deplorable behaviour.” Unfortunately for the prime minister, international relations is very much about deplorable behaviour, something which Australia has not been exempt from.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
That soldier was embracing the child you reichstream pro lgbtq problematic fkheads have no clue,
there are allready 13 sas criminals dishionourably discharged and 9 suicides to date in lieu of these unaustralian led contingent whoms responsability lies with the deep state ranks of unelect covernments up 2018(morrison) The cia/frankfurt divide and conquer method has failed,infact we are thanking chinese now and the past 200 years whom contributed to develop our country something where nazis nor cias never even existed so you can forget about you lame wedgie either way oz is on the mend yet the only thing that can destroy china is a gorbachev clone which shan’t happen,your in debt,ran out of money so need to start a war,but this too won’t happen as your sly immature contingent of luciferian kweer loving traitors and blamers of peace fail falling flat on your faces,
Begone drama dragqueen,focus on justice not reichstream narratives,they cant run real sht,grow up!
When are you going to publish your book, on Amazon, Jimi?
What for,amazon got queen hellary,regardless,wouldn’t read it if you got paid to:
Let then perish in vain,Peter Jennings (lockheed deep state) is our #1 enemy(period)
Good intro.
Australia is not a democracy; it is a conquered vassal of the racist supremacist global Jewish satanic slave empire dictatorship.
Israel and its racist supremacist global Jewish satanic slave empire dictatorship is rapidly losing the peace big time.
China just has to keep things as they are.
Racist Jews who occupy Australia are happy to fight to the last stupid Australian Goyim and don’t care about Australian Goyim suffering.
Russia China etc. need to strengthen their payment systems with the EEU, to bypass and crush SWIFT and the Zionist Federal Reserve Jewish dollar, which will be the biggest defeat for racist Jewish supremacy since Lincoln abolished the Jewish slave
trade of blacks in the Americas. Russia also needs to strengthen its economy and military etc. as does China etc. That is why Israel is starting wars with Syria North Korea, Libya, Yemen, Sudan etc because Jews think wars are their only hope to maintain their racist empire.
As long as current trends continue Russia and China are best to keep doing as they are.
Once theJewish Federal Reserve dollar and SWIFT collapse Israel’s economy and military will collapse rapidly without having to fire a single shot.
You do know better than 95% foolish people who always fell for the Jewish controlled media propaganda thinking its West VS East.
These parasites staged WWI/II and all crisis to plunder the world blind, and pitch race, religion and nation against each other. That’s why Roman empire, Hitler, Czar, and many nations banished this usury parasite is not an coincidence.
Hello yes you get it. I have lots of info to post to you here, from Jewish sources as nothing beats their voluntary confessions and bragging. I will post when I am less busy.
Proof of all you say here and more
WWI/II and all crisis to plunder the world blind, and pitch race, religion and nation against each other.
Very well articulated. Australia has miserable beginnings as a British penal colony and the same depraved mentality has carried through to its current heinous cowardly war crimes, racism and licking US anal cavity. It is a small insignificant non-entity that just wants to act beyond its capability or capacity. As can be seen by the lack of interest in the comments section, no one takes such venal criminals seriously. Australia is the last bastion of shameless trash.
Australia would be a nice place if it were a free country and looked after the interests of their own people instead of the interests of the racist supremacist global Jewish satanic slave empire dictatorship.
It is,but these pesky jewnazi kweers are desperate for our money,about time we blot them out and they as our true #1 national threat never was china,200 years speaks louder than any problematic demented up its cakewhole gimp,
for example deep state/ fake strategist of the commonwealth of Australians:
You never grew up here so you need to get the facts straight,the convicts made australia,unlike modern day unelected deep state gimps whom represent abc,lockheed martin and other unaustralian corporations,they are not Australians,
however when they give free headjobs to abbott + turbull they get to like it more,
no wonder they both got sacked for good,here on in justice will prevail,china is our massive strategic economic partner,no matter what Jennings + co are nothing burgers
dangerous but only as much as the commonwealth allows them to be,won’t be much,
13 dishourable discharged for serving these jewhadi/nazi slimes much more to come,
now or never we defend 40.5 exports to china or nothing burgers like jennings + dills
Logic,china has been trading and working in australia over 200 years now,these vile deep state sewer rats of incests + co nothing other than cia/sales brochures n sht:
PETER JENNINGS,is such the worm,ex gayto employee vying for nazi like destructive policys:
I, as a free American from the civilised world with free market conditions, urge the parties to enter into a dialogue and talk it over, ………and refrain from any violence!
Or else you will send the 6th Fleet and the Marines, who will kill anything that moves on all sides.
That’s the US way, bringing pieces of humans together.
Jews cabals controlled West & CIA have regime changed regularly to install clowns like Morrison, Boris, Trumps, Modi, Brazil Pez,…
Its always the people that suffered, get divided and ruled, pitted against each other along nation, West vs East, religions, race, ideology, …..endless wars & crisis, so that these 1% can exploit and plunder the world regularly.
No you mean hellary ,bush,odummer,gore,lgbtq incests eu-epp,soros more fkn well like it:
You must be Australian. Your illiteracy gives it away.
Pot. Kettle.
I love to read articles from Dr. Kampmark, I’ve never had a single quibble with his take on any issue.
Which makes you a cocksukn nothing burger too:Either way not getting you fekln war,gimps!
australia is an amerikan colony—no different than most EU/NATO nations: laden with debt, obsequious to US interests
4 trillion genuine gold backed in untapped super funds,no wonder the phaedo reserve has it in see 300 odd billion in loans,nothing near other countrys most particularly usa which is why
standard of lifes far better than you could ever imagined,they know it too hate us for truth:
Ask then why the overseas corporated parasite whims of insolent trusts,simply hate us for dealing with china,infact Australasia is the true powerhouse of trades,the nazis wished they were:We are legit 5th most traded currency in planet earth,now consider our dollars=realm:
Now look what the banksters want,wished,rey to scam,manifest to their fake deutchbond ponzi schemes,we busted their sorry asses indeed,no more free lunch for deep state fake rich punks not the other punks whom rely on others money to try to take control,the commonwealth will crush ’em in the end,try they may come brexit the eu-epp must owe up:
Peter jennings is no part of Australian defense,that is a pro lgbtq/nazi kweer whoms affiliates aka
nwo deepstate keep trying to purge Australian workers out of their wealths and commonwealths for that matter,they need to be exposed and ousted along with the abc whom partners these unelects!
There is nothing ‘doctored’ about the picture China set out in twitter.
It is an accurate reflection of what the Ozzies are up to in Afghanistan.
In fact … let me take that back …it IS doctored … it does not display enough dead Afghan children and blood. Neither does it correctly show the ear necklaces ozzie soldiers make from their killings!
“… ask Mongrel Morrison, whose ‘special forces’ slit the throats of 2 Afghan boys on suspicion of walking while brown, hid them into bags thrown into a river. That plus killing 37 other unarmed civvies, even shooting them while they were running away. And that is what their investigation report could prove.”