TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chinese state media got its metaphors in a twist over Australian members of parliament arriving in Taipei on Sunday (Dec. 4), saying the move would cause fire to burn.
Obviously, fire burns, and it does not need the oxygen of six Australian MPs visiting Taiwan to meet President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other officials. However, according to China’s Global Times headline on Monday (Dec. 5):
“With lawmakers' Taiwan visit, Australia should stop playing with fire before the fire starts to burn.”
Further down the opinion piece the unnamed writer continues: “Those who play with fire will perish by it. The politicians from certain countries who visit Taiwan to seek limelight are like political god (sic) of plague and pestilence.”
It’s nothing unusual for Chinese media to rain down threats because a country follows through on its policy of engagement with Taiwan. It appears to be a knee-jerk reaction and as such, the Global Times headline — which makes little or no sense — is the usual throwing of mud and a bit of a hot mess.
Global Times cartoonist Chen Xia's take on China-Australia relations. (Global Times screenshot)
The bipartisan visit is the first by senior Australian politicians in three years, due to COVID. The country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been trying to play down the trip by saying it was not government approved, as he has been attempting to mend fences with China.
Albanese met with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (習近平) in mid-November, in Bali, Indonesia, at the G20 summit. The nations are set to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties this year.
The two countries had fallen out over Australia’s insistence on an independent investigation into the origins of the pandemic, a ban on China’s Huawei from 5G contracts, and a security alliance with the U.S. and U.K.
South China Morning Post recently reported that investment between Taiwan and Australia has been growing. Darson Chiu, research fellow at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s APEC Study Center, was quoted as saying:
“China’s zero-COVID policy has led to a significant reduction in economic and trade activities, so the trade relationship between Taiwan and Australia has increased.”