China has responded to Australia\u2019s decision for government officials to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, with an incendiary blast for the US\u2019s \u201cno.1 lackey\u201d.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s state-affiliated media organisation reacted quickly to Australia\u2019s announcement on Wednesday morning, publishing a reply to an Australian media article about the snub.<\/p>\n
\u201c#Comment: No. 1 US lackey\u201d, the official\u00a0Global Times\u00a0account said, accompanied by an illustration of a kangaroo in the air, holding onto a balloon dressed in the US flag.<\/p>\n
The response from Beijing\u2019s media outlet coincided with Chinese Embassy in Canberra officials labelling the move \u201cpolitical posturing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the\u00a0decision was made due to human rights abuses in China, and that Australia\u2019s stance was \u201cnot surprising\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement just hours later, China\u2019s embassy in Canberra said Australia\u2019s decision ran counter to its publicly pronounced expectation to improve China-Australia relations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we all know, the blame for the current predicament of China-Australia relations lies squarely on the Australian side,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina once again urges the Australian side to take practical measures to create favourable conditions for improving bilateral relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also noted Australia\u2019s diplomats were not required to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia\u2019s success at the Beijing Winter Olympics depends on the performance of Australian athletes, not on the attendance of Australian officials, and the political posturing by some Australian politicians,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cMountains can not stop the river from flowing into the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Global Times\u00a0expanded on its response on Wednesday afternoon, quoting the Chinese embassy saying that Australia\u2019s decision to boycott Beijing went against improving ties with China.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s decision followed\u00a0US President Joe Biden\u2019s announcement of an American diplomatic boycott of the Games.<\/p>\n
Mr Morrison said Australia would not step back from standing up for Australia\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n
While the Chinese government has warned of further sanctions against nations that boycott of the Olympics, Mr Morrison said such a move would be unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere would be no grounds for that whatsoever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll always stand up for Australia\u2019s interests and what Australians believe is right, and we are living in an uncertain time.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Biden cited the Chinese government\u2019s ongoing genocide against minority Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses as a reason for not sending officials to Beijing for the Games in February.<\/p>\n
The move comes after growing diplomatic tensions between Australia and China, with China imposing export bans on Australian goods.<\/p>\n
China has also criticised Australia\u2019s alignment with the AUKUS alliance and the decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China has responded to Australia\u2019s decision for government officials to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, with an incendiary blast for the US\u2019s \u201cno.1 lackey\u201d. China\u2019s state-affiliated media organisation reacted quickly to Australia\u2019s announcement on Wednesday morning, publishing a reply to an Australian media article about the snub. \u201c#Comment: No. 1 US lackey\u201d, the official\u00a0Global Times\u00a0account […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,69,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","category-world"],"views":79,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3945,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions\/3945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}