The Chinese government was angry over the Huawei decision, and its commerce ministry labelled the Australian ban on technology companies that were seen to take direction from a foreign government (not explicitly named as Chinese companies) the "wrong decision". Australians in China looked at the timing and began to wonder: "Coincidence?" The ABC reported on Monday that it had received a response from the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission that appears to confirm the news website had been censored. "State cyber sovereignty rights shall be maintained towards some overseas websites violating China's laws and regulations, spreading rumours, pornographic information, gambling, violent terrorism and some other illegal harmful information which will endanger state security and damage national pride," an official from the cyber security regulator told the ABC. The ABC reported that it had not been informed how it was alleged to have violated any Chinese law.

There are more coincidences. The ABC began translating news items into Chinese on its website a year ago. It is also known that the Chinese government has been unhappy with Australian media reporting about China, particularly a Four Corners episode on Chinese influence screened on the ABC, for at least a year. The Four Corners episode was part of a joint investigation with Fairfax Media reporters. The issue of Australian media coverage of China was frequently raised by Chinese diplomats in talks with Australian counterparts, and at a high-level dialogue between Australia and China attended by former Prime Minister John Howard, last year.

The response from Australian officials was that, although the ABC is government-owned, it is an independent broadcaster. In China, where stated-owned media all sing from the government song sheet, this has been hard for them to digest. Former foreign minister Julie Bishop pictured with Chinas' foreign minister Wang Yi at an East Asia Summit. Former foreign minister Julie Bishop, in an attempt to repair ties with Beijing after a diplomatic freeze, met informally with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in May at a G20 event in Buenos Aires. China's foreign ministry said Bishop had told Wang this: "Due to some negative reports of Australia's domestic media, the relations between Australia and China have been affected. She would like to clarify here that these reports are quite inaccurate and do not represent the position of the Australian government at all."

Bishop later disputed this account, but the Chinese statement clearly showed where Beijing was laying blame. Of course, the diplomatic freeze Bishop was attempting to lift, so that she could make her first visit to Australia's biggest trading partner in two years, was never officially confirmed. Loading Was it just a coincidence that no Australian minister had stepped foot on Chinese soil in the five months after former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke about the Australian people standing up - in mangled Mandarin - to spruik his new foreign interference laws? Like the coincidence of Chinese customs delaying crates of Australian wine at the docks for weeks over paperwork when Beijing was unhappy at Australian politicians commenting on China's ambitions in the Pacific?

Another coincidence - the no-show of a planned Australia Week trade fair in Shanghai this year. Amid allthe coincidences, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recited one of Beijing's oldest, favourite lines: "China's a sovereign country, they make decisions about what happens there, we make decisions about what happens here," he told radio station 3AW on Monday morning, when asked about the ABC website. DFAT said it had "raised this issue with Chinese authorities, and will continue to do so".