This has not been a good month so far for China's image in Australia. First, there have been the highly publicised cases of children being admitted to hospital as a result of swallowing beads from the popular Chinese-made craft toy, Bindeez. And, last Sunday, a Melbourne newspaper revealed that Chinese diplomatic officials have been trying to intimidate politicians with regard to Falun Gong and the Dalai Lama. So what, one is tempted to say about the alleged intimidation. The US is none too subtle in the way it intervenes in the domestic affairs of other countries, including Australia. Yet Australians generally view the US in benign terms, and the majority of people support Canberra's defence alliance with the superpower. But China is not the US. The country and its culture are still foreign to most Australians. That is despite the fact that, today, it is the third-largest source of immigrants, after Britain and New Zealand, and will shortly become Australia's biggest trading partner, overtaking the US and Japan. In short, to paraphrase president Bill Clinton's 1992 informal campaign slogan: 'It's the image, stupid.' The US has established its credentials with Australians since it came to the nation's rescue in the second world war and helped beat off Japan. There is today a shared Anglo-European heritage, and a commitment in both countries to liberal democratic values. But, with China, it's different. Frankly, it is probably fair to say that the average Australian doesn't think about China very often. Why would they? American culture and its home-spun derivatives dominate when people surf the internet, turn on the radio, read a magazine or newspaper, or watch TV. Still, the alert over Bindeez beads is unfortunate in many ways - not least for the handful of Australian children who swallowed a product which contains a substance that can transform into a 'date-rape' drug when ingested. More broadly, it is also not an isolated case, but the latest in a series of product recalls due to serious quality-control issues in the Chinese manufacturing sector. As a result, it further sets back the possibility of Australians being comfortable with China as an economic partner. And it gives ammunition to the various strands of anti-Chinese xenophobia in Australia. There is, in other words, a non-economic dimension to trade scandals such as the one involving the Bindeez toys. And what was the Chinese consul general in Melbourne thinking when - according to The Sunday Age newspaper - he sent an e-mail to a local politician telling him that he was 'misguided' and should not attend a briefing on alleged organ harvesting practices in China? Once again, it seems that this was not an isolated incident; other politicians have complained about receiving 'instructions' from Chinese diplomats not to attend rallies and meetings in support of Falun Gong and the Dalai Lama. It was never going to be easy, given the cultural and political differences between the two countries, for China to win the hearts and minds of Australians in the way the US has been able to. But incidents like the Bindeez toy alert and ham-fisted diplomacy aren't helping the cause. Greg Barns is a political commentator in Australia and a former Australian government adviser