Morrison claims to be willing to sacrifice his trade relationship, with China. (Photo of The Australian)
Mr. Morrison (Scott Morrison), Australia`s prime minister, said on Thursday that even at the expense of China`s trade relationship, Australia always stand by itself.
Mr. morrison`s earlier call for a global investigation into the origins of the new crown virus triggered a strong backlash from china and was accused of playing the role of u.s." deputy police chief ", according to aus news agency.
But Morrison himself scoffed at the criticism. He told journalist in Canberra on Thursday :" We have always been independent, we have been pursuing our national interests and will always be so. "
"We will always be Australians on how to deal with the rest of the world, and we will always stand by ourselves when it comes to what we believe in and the values we uphold. "
Recently, due to relationship tensions between australia and china, journalist in china`s regular journalist meetings from monday to wednesday asked about china`s actions against australian barley and beef and whether they were "economic coercion" against australia, but china Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaker zhao lijian stressed that those were normal trade matters.
News: coerce Australia with barley and beef? China responded three days in a row
The domestic minister, Peter Dutton, said earlier today that australia, despite current tensions with china, would continue to push for an independent investigation into the origins of the new crown.
Dutton, who had previously been infected with the new coronavirus, has always argued that family members have the right to question and that their questions need to be answered in a transparent manner.
"What Australia does is to defend our values, and we will stick to it consistently ," Dutton said. "
Yet the attitude of the federal government has not been strongly supported by states and territories, with three labour-ruling states publicly praising the importance of australia-china relationship, and even the new state, also ruled by Unionparty, stressing the importance of trade with china.
Labour: The Australian-Chinese relationship debate is dominated by conservatives
Labour, while supporting government initiative to investigate the origins of the new crown virus, criticized government message on relationship in australia and china.
Labour speaker for Foreign Affairs, Mr Wong (Penny Wong), argues that Mr Morrison should lead the debate on Australia-China relationship and that the arguments need to be clearer and more coherent.
"I think the implication is that this debate is largely orchestrated and dominated by conservative backseat councillor, who are fighting over who is going to be more critical of China ," Wong told Radio Australia. "
"I do not think it is in the national interest. "
Mr Wong believes that the target audience for inflammatory rhetoric against China is the Australian population ." From the Prime Minister`s standpoint, we need to reduce our concern about domestic political interests. We need to focus on national interests. "
Earlier this week, former foreign minister bi xiao (Julie Bishop) said that while she supported an investigation into the origins of the new crown, australia should have some "cool and thoughtful diplomacy" behind the scenes and need to convince china that the investigation will also carefully examine other countries` responses to the new crown virus.
News Review: Bi Xiaoxu`s diplomatic coolness to China has been attacked by former colleagues
"Unfortunately ,[ calls for investigation] have been reduced to abusive, tense and inflammatory statements ," Bi added. "
Mr bi`s comments came as several Unionparty conservative senator, former colleagues, attacked her, even calling her "brainless" and threatened that china should "compensate" australia for the new crown.
