China advised to bomb ‘Australian soil’
A leading voice in Communist China has advised Beijing to
bomb Australia and bring “disaster” should Canberra support US military action.
Benedict Brook
May 9, 2021 6:36am
The editor of a Chinese newspaper considered to be a mouthpiece of the Communist dictatorship has said Beijing should consider “long range strikes” directed at Australia.
Editor-in-chief of the stridently pro-Communist Global Times newspaper, Hu Xijin, made the extraordinary comments in an editorial advising Beijing how it should react should Australia join the US in protecting democratic Taiwan from invasion.
“Australia must know what disasters it would cause to their country,” he said in the tub-thumping piece published late on Friday.
Beijing has long insisted Taiwan must unite with the People’s Republic, either by choice or force. It has become a rallying cry for Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
That’s despite Taiwan never having been under communist rule. The island was where the then-Chinese government fled to in 1949 when the Communists took control on the mainland.
It is now a democratic nation with many inhabitants seeing themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.
The US is not obligated to defend Taiwan, although its policy of “strategic ambiguity” over Taiwan means it reserves the right to do so. If the US did intervene, it’s highly likely Australia would be called on to help in some way.
In recent months, China has ratcheted up the tension and its air force has made repeated forays into Taiwan’s air defence zone.
On Anzac Day Canberra’s chief national security adviser Mike Pezzullo told staff that the “drums of war” were getting louder. That was widely interpreted as referring to China.
