Malcolm Turnbull calls on Scott Morrison to ‘hold the line’ and not give in to China’s ‘bullying’

As Australia-China relations hit rock bottom, former PM Malcolm Turnbull insists Canberra shouldn’t accept any more “bullying” from the superpower.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has insisted the Government shouldn’t bow down to China or accept any more “bullying”, as our relationship with the Asian nation sours even more.

But, he also said, inflaming the tensions would be the wrong move from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Earlier this week, the Morrison Government was given a list of 14 grievances from China, with Mr Turnbull urging the PM to “not ever take a backward step”.

Mr Turnbull said the list, given to media from a Chinese embassy official, was “an extraordinary thing for a foreign government to do; utterly counter-productive”.

In an interview with 9 News, Mr Turnbull said despite China continuing to attack Australia through both social media and trade routes, the Government should “do nothing” to raise the temperature on tensions.

“We just need to let the temperature lower or at least do nothing to raise it ourselves,” he said.

Mr Turnbull labelled the grievance list – which included a number of his own decisions made when he was leader – a bullying tactic.

“There’s a reason why governments don’t conduct themselves in this way,” he said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

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Malcolm Turnbull has called on Australia to confront China. Picture: 9 News

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Mr Turnbull said the best thing to do with the list was to “bin it”.

“It’s not an acceptable way of doing business,” he said.

“We’re entitled to defend our sovereignty and we’re entitled to ensure political decisions are taken in Australia by Australians.”

The Chinese government lashed out at Mr Turnbull’s decision to ban Huawei from building a 5G network in Australia and labelled our foreign interference laws as something that was “targeting China and in the absence of any evidence”.

Addressing his former colleagues directly, Mr Turnbull urged them not to “give in to bullies”.

“The one thing you can guarantee will see more bullying is if you start giving in to bullies,” he said.

“Is this style of diplomacy increasing China’s influence around the world? No, it’s diminishing it.

“Australians can see there is transparently, plain bullying, attempted bullying going on. The Government’s obviously got to respond to this astutely and carefully, but it certainly shouldn’t be giving in to this bully or any others.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is being urged to ‘hold the line’. Picture: Gary Ramage/NCA NewsWire

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Countries around the world have rallied with Australia after China imposed tariffs on wine, barley, beef and cotton.

A hashtag #IStandWithAustralia trended on Twitter earlier this week with people promising to buy Australian wine to support the industry.

Mr Turnbull insisted the trade disputes were “hurting Chinese importers and consumers as well”.

Relations between the two countries are arguably the worst they have ever been after two weeks of frosty attacks.

On Monday, Mr Morrison denounced a “repugnant”, “outrageous” and “appalling” tweet from a top Chinese government spokesman and demanded Beijing formally apologise.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian sparked the outrage when he posted a fake image of a man dressed as an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to an Afghan child’s throat.

Australian prosecutors are currently investigating 19 members of the country’s military in connection with alleged war crimes committed by special forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

Morrison labelled the tweet – from an official Chinese government account – an “outrageous and disgusting slur” against the Australian armed forces and called on Twitter to take it down.

“It is utterly outrageous and it cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever. The Chinese government should be totally ashamed of this post,” Mr Morrison said of the tweet.

“It diminishes them in the world’s eyes.”

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Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted the falsified image.

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And relations between Australia and China continue to freefall.

China introduced a string of economic sanctions on Australian goods and state-controlled news outlets have repeatedly attacked Australia over a range of issues.

The ill feeling appears to have been prompted by Canberra’s decision to push back on Beijing’s growing power in the region, to crack down on Chinese influence operations in Australia and to call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This sort of conduct is not conducive to any relationship,” Mr Morrison said of the tweet. “That’s why I think it’s so important in our mutual interests that this egregious act be dealt with.”

– with wires