Britain must back Australia in its fight against China

China is a bully and the sooner the West understands that, the sooner we can begin to push back. Beijing has banned beef imports from four Australian abattoirs and slapped tariffs of up to 80 per cent on the country’s barley exports. The dictatorship is citing trumped up hygiene and safety concerns, but these are commonly used pretexts for politically-motivated economic punishment. Canberra’s punishment is for joining calls for an independent inquiry into China’s handling of its coronavirus, which the Chinese communist party tried to cover up and which has since spread across the globe, infecting more than four million and killing 300,000.

While Brits wait for Boris Johnson’s government to show some backbone on the rogue state responsible for the deaths of 33,000 of their compatriots, it is heartening to see the Australian government willing to risk the ire of a belligerent Beijing. Scott Morrison’s administration has hardly roared but a disapproving tut is still better than a humble squeak.