Clive Palmer’s anti-China tirade has attracted a scathing rebuke from a Chinese newspaper, which says Beijing should consider imposing sanctions on the mining magnate and his companies.
The state-owned English-language Global Times, a tabloid with a reputation for courting controversy, says Palmer’s televised harangue was “the most vicious attack by one of the Australian elite” in months.
Palmer called the Chinese “bastards” and “mongrels” who shoot their own people on ABC television earlier this week. One of his senators, Jacqui Lambie, later warned of the threat of a Chinese invasion of Australia.
In an editorial on Wednesday, The Global Times said China shouldn’t let Palmer off the hook for his “nonsense”.
“China should consider imposing sanctions on Palmer and his companies, cutting off all business contacts with him and forbidding him and his senior executives into China,” the paper says.
“The sanctions could also be given to any Australian companies which have business dealings with Palmer’s. China must let those prancing provocateurs know how much of a price they pay when they deliberately rile us.”
Moreover, Palmer’s “rampant rapscality” serves as a symbol that Australian society has an unfriendly attitude toward China, it says.
The paper also labels Australia a “double-dealer” by cosying up to the US and Japan while reaping economic gains from China’s rise.
Meanwhile, the head of the world’s largest miner is playing down claims that Palmer’s anti-China tirade could damage Australia’s trade relations with the Asian giant.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott weighed in on Wednesday, calling Palmer’s comments “over the top, shrill and wrong”.
The China boom had kept Australia going through the worst of the global financial crisis, Abbott said.
“It’s one of the reasons why we want to maintain a strong relationship with China, one of the reasons why what Clive Palmer said the other night was so destructive,” he told ABC radio.
But BHP Billiton boss Andrew Mackenzie is unconcerned by the comments, saying the strength of Australia’s relationship with China would “rank more highly in the minds of the Chinese”.
“I think the people in China can see through that,” Mackenzie told ABC radio.
“They’re comments by an individual and they’re not on behalf of any other Australian supplier.”
The Queensland MP’s comments were compounded by Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie, who said Australia should double the size of its military to counter the threat of a Chinese invasion.
Abbott said “quirky newcomers” often attracted celebrity-like attention, when asked if there was a comparison between Lambie and controversial former MP Pauline Hanson.
Both were “populist outbreaks on the right of politics”.
“And I think in the end both pretty counterproductive in our national life,” he said.
“But having said that, I accept .. the people of Australia elected the Senate that we’ve got, and we are prepared to work constructively with the Senate that we’ve got.”
Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce compared Lambie’s comments with drunken talk “at the corner pub”.
“These things sound amusing when they’re said after 15 beers but they’re very, very dangerous if you want to say them on national television,” he told the Nine Network.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Palmer’s outburst was “unhelpful” and “silly”.
“I wish he hadn’t said them. I hope he wishes he hadn’t said them,” he said.
He said Chinese immigrants had made an “enormous contribution” to Australian society.
