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Opinion | Australia has dug itself into a hole in its relationship with China. It’s time to find a way out
- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison unwisely intervened in the debate about China’s responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic
- It did not take long for Beijing to exact crude penalties. Morrison could do worse than reset a clear policy towards China that defines Australia’s own interests
Reading Time:5 minutes
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In diplomacy, as in life, if you find yourself in a hole it is better to stop digging.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has excavated a diplomatic cavity for himself and his country as a consequence of an unwise intervention in the debate about China’s responsibility for a coronavirus pandemic.
After a phone call with US President Donald Trump on April 22, during which the two leaders discussed China’s responsibility for the contagion, Morrison took it upon himself to push forward with an Australian coordinating role for an independent international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic.
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Morrison wrote to world leaders offering Australia as a coordinator for an investigation of how the contagion came about. This would include examining the role of the China-sympathetic World Health Organisation in managing its spread.
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Why Morrison decided to pursue such an intervention immediately after a call to the White House remains a mystery. In the annals of Australian diplomacy, this may well go down as one of the more questionable forays into international diplomacy.
One would have to go back to Robert Menzies’s vainglorious efforts on behalf of Australia’s imperial masters to mediate the Suez Crisis in 1956 to find an apt parallel.
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