To think the Chinese government have horrendous audacity..

[Roostersmum2]

In summary if you don't want to read the link to read the link:

A coalition of 122 countries are now supporting Australia's call for an independent probe to investigate the causes of the coronavirus pandemic that started in Wuhan, China.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has "felt the wrath" of Beijing, after China then threatened to decimate his country's economy unless the inquiry initiative is dropped.

The need for an inquiry will be voted on by 194 nations at the World Health Assembly on Tuesday and China has increased its belligerent threats towards Australia with a suggestion they may place a crippling tariff on barley exports

How dare they?

www.google.com/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/news/world/1283632/China-coronavirus-inquiry-australia-scott-morrison-revenge-122-nations-probe-wuhan/amp

We should be boycotting Chinese goods, it is clearly a very corrupt government. - great idea, who can afford it?

Australia is saber rattling to deflect from their own failings. Appealing to their people with dog whistle racist bullshit. China doesn't give a shit about anyone but China of course and has the economic might to do it. They've been conducting a cold war economically of their own for decades now and everyone let them. Trump is playing chicken with the lives of his own people. And the UK is pretending to give a shit about the NHS while cutting it's legs off.

Every one of these arseholes was chosen by their own people or allowed to stand by their own people. Try dealing with your own leadership before taking on someone else's.

I'm pissed off with their government

Yes, me too. That doesn't make you a racist.

Try dealing with your own leadership before taking on someone else's.

Its not trying to take their government down, it's asking very valid questions into how the fuck this happened, and why they made the choices they made which have led us here. I would say that's fair, and I would think the same whichever country it was.

Should we boycott the RNA sequence they made freely available?

Or indeed the PPE Jack Ma has been sending all over the world at no cost, and the PPE governments have bought?
(Remember, the Turkish PPE was defective!).

I am trying very hard to remain measured and allow the benefit of the doubt re: this situation with China. I don't think criticising the Chinese government is racist but I do think pointing the finger and blaming China without the facts results in xenophobic and racist attacks on people of Chinese and Asian heritage as people naively want an outlet for their anger, hence my desire to exercise caution. Especially as even Chinese civilians themselves are innocent but it would be the government, and their scientists who were responsible if true.

This is getting increasingly difficult to do, with China's aggressive and uncooperative responses, not allowing WHO to investigate, threatening tariffs. I was completely unconvinced in the beginning that there was something sinister about the virus, but China's reaction is making me start to question and have doubts that this is in any way innocent.

Of course there should be an inquiry- the Chinese government bullying tactics also needs to be taken into account.

Of course there should be an enquirer but I suspect Boris will not push it too far as we don't have a post Brexit trade agreement with China yet

I haven't been following the WHA proceedings but as far as I know, for the past couple of weeks China have been saying they are keen to work with WHO and international scientists to discover the source of the virus.

I don't know what's going on between China and Australia (I'll seek out a better source than the Express) but frankly we don't need it, just like we don't need all the sabre rattling between China and the US.

It's incredibly important that we find out where this virus came from and how it ended up in humans so we can stop it happening again. This needs to be done in a spirit of collaborative scientific enquiry though, not as an 'investigative probe', not as a criminal investigation.

Because China can actually just say fuck off and then what's our next move?

There should be an investigation. The tactics being used to try to stifle an inquiry are the same ones that have been used for many years to block Taiwan’s participation in international affairs. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, nor do I agree with some of the more hysterical calls for China to pay reparations, but an inquiry to find out what went wrong is perfectly reasonable. It will be interesting to see if enough countries are willing to stand their ground to force China to comply.

What do you expect from a communist dictatorship? Transparency? Honesty? No chance.

China is a CF if ever there was one !
The rest of the world have a right to know what the hell happened and we all know that it wasn’t from one of their disgusting Wet markets

Australia is frightened of China.
They have good reason.

China have been lending too much money to pacific nations, waiting for default, then claiming strategic assets for military ports and bases. They are also infiltrating Australian politics and using economic intimidation.

All credible sources below:

www.reuters.com/article/us-pacific-samoa-china-insight/sink-or-swim-chinese-port-plans-put-pacific-back-in-play-idUSKCN1UX01I

edition.cnn.com/2018/05/15/asia/china-us-australia-debt-diplomacy-intl/index.html

www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/world/australia/china-spying-wang-liqiang-nick-zhao.html

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-50541082

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/14/chinas-attempt-strong-arm-australia-should-disturb-world/

www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-04/australian-sovereignty-under-threat-from-chinese-influence/8583832

I wouldn't want to be an Aussie politician right now. Brave, crazy fuckers that they are, calling out China...

Is there such a thing as “ a crippling tariff on barley exports”? Fail to see how that would even be a pin prick in Australia’s economy.

Of course China is unresponsive and aggressive. Other countries (as far as they are concerned tiny, insignificant countries) are demanding information, wanting to insert themselves into domestic politics and generally acting as though China is some backwater.

The elections in the USA time before last were illegally conducted. The Brexit campaign was an illegal shambles. American foreign policy for decades has been interventionist and conducted in ways that should be roundly condemned. All fine as far as the international community is concerned. Never looked at, never worried about. The very few attempts to rein America in have failed. The international organisations that attempt fairness are crippled as the US pulls funding and their lapdog the UK cheers them on.

China learned from this. It learned how to fight wars in majority world countries. How to buy power rather than fight for it. It learned that if you build roads and dams and supply electricity and cheap goods, no one actually cares about your politics or human rights. It's what everyone else has been doing for hundreds of years and now China has caught up. Welcome to neo-colonialism.

You're just annoyed it's China doing it. They learned from the best.

Being pissed off with the corrupt Chinese government does not make you a racist.

You're just annoyed it's China doing it.

Annoyed isn't the right word. Trepidation is closer. I don't want my country colonised. That happened before 🇬🇧 and TBH it wasn't great for the original inhabitants. 🤔

Hmmm. Apparently, Australia has been dumping barley in China and this issue has been going on since 2017 when Beijing started investigating and cutting down on barley imports from Australia. Nothing to do with Covid.

Definition dumping, in case anyone is interested
“Dumping, in economics, is a kind of injuring pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price below the normal price with an injuring effect. The objective of dumping is to increase market share in a foreign market by driving out competition and thereby create a monopoly situation where the exporter will be able to unilaterally dictate price and quality of the product.”

Neither do I frankly. But the expectation that China will allow an investigation is like Trump allowing an international investigation in the USA. Of course they won't. It's not about China, it's about a powerful country acting like a powerful country while the rest of the world wants them to act like a good little colony.

The big white countries and blocs are waking up to the fact that now there's an Asian superpower. One that isn't going to say, 'of course you can walk into our country and tell us how to run things'. The only time we get to do those things is when countries are poorer and less powerful. It's the same reason that the International Court of Justice investigated African countries at massively higher rates than any other; because they could. More war crimes were committed by the US and European countries but we NEVER get investigated. Because we pay the bills.

Now China is paying the bills.

Now China is paying the bills.

They certainly have a big WHO bill left on the table.

Yeah, because governments of any ilk are always open to being investigated by others. Like the Russian government, the US government, the UK government.... We've started and fought wars and never been scrutinised. Why should the Chinese government bow to demands that we would never how to in their place.

Anyone really wanting an independent scrutiny of something could start with the lame arsed approach of the UK government in managing this. Or the same investigation into the US government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. And let's not forget how Russia's definitely not fiddling their figures. But then Russia has a lot of experience at fiddling things, from elections on down....

What do you expect from a communist dictatorship? Transparency? Honesty? No chance.

THIS ^^

What do you expect from a communist dictatorship? Transparency? Honesty? No chance.

Western democracy can't manage this either.