Five years after being assailed by News Corp and the Coalition for being too hard on China, Labor is now deemed too soft on China — while the Coalition’s complete reversal on hugging the panda is ignored.
Here’s a good example of something that fits that badly overused term “Orwellian” to the letter — and something else that we at Crikey have banged on about for years: no one in the national press gallery seems to have a memory longer than five minutes.
Anthony Albanese is now, by right-wing lights, officially Soft On China. The opposition leader’s crime has been to suggest that the government had handled its relationship with China poorly.
It’s China that has been a constant aggressor, abuser and interferer, and Morrison’s response has, for the most part, been appropriate. Has it been perfect? As Richard McGregor of the Lowy Institute pointed out today, not exactly.
