.... off Mr O, you talk bs

I recently heard an Australian ex-embassador to China say that the people for appeasing China are locked into a past China and leadership that no longer exists. President Xi is a different kettle of fish, and what once might have worked will not work with him. Xi wants total surrenders, nothing less.

China by all reports has a major financial crisis in the offing.
No matter how it all goes at least we will not starve.
If I were government I would ask, or assist, the coal merchants who
have already been paid for the coal on board to refund the money and
recall the ships.
Place the cargoes on the spot market, the value is $au 700 million.
The high quality coal will produce a relatively good price and also
we can use it in our power stations.
We then have got rid of a poor customer and can then divert our iron ore
and coal in other directions.
One interesting proposal is steel works at each end of a railway
between Central Qld coal and the ore deposits in WA.
Then if China wants to buy the steel we can sell it FOB.
That's what you do to untrustworthy customers.

There is a balance to be drawn between principle and self-interest. While Australia needs to show what it stands for, being at the front of the crowd abusing the Chinese is not a smart play given our economic dependence on China.

China's portrayal of Australian misbehaviour in Afghanistan is also not a sensible issue to grandstand on. Posting an insulting image of an Australian soldier on line is a far lesser crime than the murders of Afghans that Australia has admitted to.

A friend who was in business in the electronics field said to me many
years ago that in dealing with the Chinese it is absolutely essential
to have the paperwork tided up exactly otherwise they will use any
excuse to not pay or part pay. There is no trust or goodwill in dealing
with the Chinese. Obviously as Australia now finds it is not just
businessmen but government that adopts the Central Kingdom attitude.

I now would not now buy anything that is made in China.
I now will not now buy an electric car from China, it was $10,000 cheaper.

"being at the front of the crowd abusing the Chinese is not a smart play given our economic dependence on China."

That's the sort of gutless, pathetic statement to encourage CCP thugs. And, nobody with any sense is shouting at 'Chinese'. Chinese people are treated worse than than anyone else by their own totalitarian government: imprisonment, murder, denial of the necessities of life if they step out of line. Our "economic dependence" on Communism is exaggerated and we must look for new trading partners.