Opinion
A tit for tat with no end point
A get-tough policy on China with no apparent goal has left Australia as the only developed country with no media representation in the country.
Geoff RabyColumnistAs Australia descends further into a costly and increasingly futile tit-for-tat fight with China, one is reminded of the Black Knight in the 1975 Arthurian spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Having lost all his limbs in a sword fight and with blood spurting from his wounds, the torso of the Black Knight shouts to the departing King Arthur: "Chicken! ... Come back here and take what's coming to you."
The slapstick, Keystone Cops-like episode of the withdrawal of two Australian journalists is the latest round. What appears to be co-ordinated, deliberately clumsy appearances by police at the journalists’ respective apartments in Beijing and Shanghai bear no resemblance to the stealthy, well-honed skills of the security agencies that "disappeared" Australian news anchor Cheng Lei.
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