An extraordinary war of words has erupted between Australia and China after Australia backed calls for an international investigation into the causes of the Covid-19 outbreak. Here we look at how the verbal stoush escalated:

17 April

Australia’s home affairs minister, Peter Dutton: “The US is saying they’ve got documentation that the virus had a particular path or origin. [He said he hadn’t seen it.] I think it is incumbent upon China to answer those questions and provide the information so people can have clarity about exactly what happened because we don’t want it to be repeated.”

19 April

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, announces a push for an investigation into the origins and spread of coronavirus while appearing on the ABC’s Insiders: “My trust in China is predicated in the long-term relationship. My concern about these issues, though, is at a very high point. My concern is around transparency and ensuring that we are able to engage openly … openly and clearly in a review process so that we can get to the bottom of this.”

20 April

China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang: “Australia’s foreign minister Payne’s remarks are not based on facts. China is seriously concerned about and firmly opposed to this.”

A Global Times news report: “Since the outbreak began, China has always acted in an open, transparent and responsible manner and taken a series of resolute, timely and forceful measures.”

A Chinese embassy official on Dutton: “Obviously he must have also received some instructions from Washington requiring him to cooperate with the US in its propaganda war against China … Some Australian politicians parroted what those US forces have said and followed them to launch political attacks on China. Their move reveals the former’s ignorance and bigotry as well as a lack of independence, which is sad.”

22 April

The Labor senator Penny Wong backs an investigation: “If the PM is serious about it, he’s going to have to a lot of work to get international agreement. It means not just talking to our friends, like the US, but also doing the hard yards of talking to countries that aren’t always our friends.”

A Chinese embassy official: “It is well known that recently some people in the US including high-level officials have been spreading anti-China ‘information virus’. Their aim is to shift blame and deflect attention by smearing China.”

26 April

China’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, to the Australian Financial Review: “I think in the long term ... if the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think, ‘Why should we go to such a country that is not so friendly to China?’ The tourists may have second thoughts. The parents of the students would also think whether this place which they found is not so friendly, even hostile, whether this is the best place to send their kids here. It is up to the people to decide. Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’”

27 April

Australia’s trade and tourism minister, Simon Birmingham: “Australia is no more going to change our policy position on a major public health issue because of economic coercion or threats of coercion than we would change our policy position in matters of national security.”

Payne: “Australia has made a principled call for an independent review of the Covid-19 outbreak, an unprecedented global crisis with severe health, economic and social impacts. We reject any suggestion that economic coercion is an appropriate response to a call for such an assessment, when what we need is global cooperation.”

Geng Shuang: “Some politicians are trying to make political manoeuvres over the origin to smear other countries, but their unpopular attempts will never succeed.”

A Global Times editorial about a US-led “blame game”: “Washington from now on would say nothing positive about China, but constantly condemn us. It has a few followers like Australia. But these countries can barely influence us.”

The Global Times editor, Hu Xijin, on Weibo: “Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.”

28 April

Australia’s Labor leader, Anthony Albanese: “Australia wants a positive relationship with China but it’s got to be built on a level of trust and transparency – and transparency is what is required from assessments of this virus and how it came about.”

Cheng releases a summary of a private phone call with the Department of Foreign Affairs secretary, Frances Adamson: “Secretary Adamson tried her best to defend Australia’s proposal about the independent review, saying the proposal neither has political motive nor targets China … Ambassador Cheng elaborated clearly China’s relevant position, stressing that no matter what excuses the Australian side has made, the fact can not be buried that the proposal is a political maneuver. Just as a western saying goes: Cry up wine and sell vinegar.”

The department responds to Cheng’s statement: “DFAT notes with regret that the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China has issued a statement releasing purported details of official diplomatic exchanges. The department will not respond by itself breaching the long standing diplomatic courtesies and professional practices to which it will continue to adhere.”

A Global Times editorial: “This is an all-out crusade against China and Chinese culture, led by Australia, which has worked hard in the past to become a comprehensive strategic partner of China … Canberra is treading on a hazardous path that has no prospect for a U-turn during the Covid-19 pandemic, and likely for a long time afterward.”

29 April

Geng Shuang: “I don’t know where the so-called claim of economic coercion comes from.”

Hu Xijin on Twitter: “Let me give a ‘coercion’ to Australia. As its attitude toward China becomes worse and worse, Chinese companies will definitely reduce economic cooperation with Australia, and the number of Chinese students & visitors going to Australia will also decrease. Time will prove it all.”

Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison: “This is a virus which has taken 200,000 lives across the world. It has shut down the global economy. It would seem entirely sensible and reasonable that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this occurred so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again. I think that is a fairly obvious and commonsense suggestion.”



