Challenging the wolves: how to reply to Beijing’s tweet

An unexpected tweet from a senior Chinese diplomat on Monday 29 November provided a perfect excuse for the Prime Minister to divert attention from his domestic problems, to praise our gallant defence forces, to refer to our national values, and to stand up to the People’s Republic of China, who, as everyone knows from numerous press reports and commentaries in recent months, has been threatening our trade and undermining our public institutions.

This is the first week of December and Australians are counting down to the summer break. Only two more weeks of parliament and this week the Opposition was ready to get stuck into the Government over the appalling issue of Robodebt, which had driven some of the unfortunate sufferers to…