‘We’ve got a problem, it’s called China’: Neil urges Australian politicians to stop quibbling and condemn China

On the eve of China’s celebration of 70 years since the communist revolution the country has sent a strong message to Australia, and Neil Mitchell says it’s cause for concern.

In an interview with The Australian, Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye has urged Australia to remember it depends on China for its economic success, saying there must be more respect and less prejudice between the two countries.

Neil Mitchell says Australian politicians need to face the facts.

“We’ve got a problem. It’s called China,” the 3AW Mornings host said.

“What do we do about the report to the UN last week that the Chinese are harvesting organs from minorities? What do we do about the concentration camps for Muslims? What do we do about the brutality emerging in Hong Kong? What do we do about a country that runs a social credit system where citizens have to prove that they’re good people?

“Nobody has got an answer. Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese don’t have the answer so they niggle at each other.”

The 3AW Mornings host urged politicians to stop infighting and act.

“We should be condemning them and we are not because we need their money, we need their trade!” he said.

“This should be above politics, but it isn’t. Labor and Liberal are quibbling over it.

“We clearly need alternative markets, which take years to develop, but we are going to face the decision: do we stand for what’s right or have they effectively bought our silence? Do we tolerate growing atrocities in China? Do we, in the end, stand with the United States?

“It is inevitable. They should stop squabbling and face that.”

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Nine’s Political Editor, Chris Ulhmann, said Australia has been unfairly painted as the villain in Australia-Chinese relations.

“I’m flat out working out what it is we actually did to offend China so badly,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“If you look on the flip side, they occupied and militiarised the South China Sea, they have interfered relentlessly in our politics and our universities, they’re looking to report where they can have a military base in the south Pacific… and constant cyber attacks.

“We pass foreign intervention laws and try and defend ourselves and they’re hugely offended by that!

“What we’ve done to China is nothing compared to what China has been doing to us.”

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