China Bullies Australia: Warns What Will happen If They Don’t Back Off Coronavirus Probe
The Australian government has called for China to explain itself and is demanding answers over the Wuhan virus outbreak. However, China’s Ambassador Cheng Jingye sent a warning to Australia that they better back off or face the consequences.
Jingye said that the probe is “dangerous” and will fail.
“I think in the long term… if the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think ‘Why should we go to such a country that is not so friendly to China? The tourists may have second thoughts’,” he said.
“The parents of the students would also think whether this place which they found is not so friendly, even hostile, whether this is the best place to send our kids.”
Education is one of the largest exports in Australia and is a $30 billion industry.
“Resorting to suspicion, recrimination or division at such a critical time could only undermine global efforts to fight against this pandemic,” Cheng said.
Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt shot back and said, “Resorting to suspicion, recrimination or division at such a critical time could only undermine global efforts to fight against this pandemic,” Cheng said.
The Foreign Minister for Australia, Marise Payne has refused to back down.
“The issues around the coronavirus are issues for independent review, and I think that it is important that we do that,” Payne told ABC television. “In fact, Australia will absolutely insist on that.”
She continued: “It will need parties, countries to come to the table with a willingness to be transparent and to engage in that process and to ensure that we have a review mechanism in which the international community can have faith.”
Australia has been one of the most outspoken critics of China and was the first country to terminate China’s Huawei telecom company contract to install its 5G network. Warships from Australia and the US have been working together to slow China’s aggression in the South China Sea.