Update | China media blasts Australian critics as ‘prancing provocateurs’ after tycoon’s outburst
Global Times blasts Clive Palmer as Australian PM Tony Abbott slams lawmaker's rant as 'shrill and wrong'
An editorial in a state-run newspaper has called on China to cut all contact with an Australian mining tycoon who branded the Chinese government “bastards” who shoot their own people and want to take over Australia’s resources.
Beijing-based Global Times argued that Clive Palmer's remarks reflected a wider trend of Australia turning its back on its largest trading partner.
“China must be aware that Palmer’s rampant rascality serves as a symbol that Australian society has an unfriendly attitude toward China,” it read.
“Australia has picked sides and embraced the US and Japan, but in the meantime, it keeps racking up economic profits from China.”
Palmer, head of the Palmer United Party (PUP) and an Australian member of parliament, sparked controversy on Monday with comments made live on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Q&A programme.
"I don’t mind standing up against the Chinese bastards and stopping them from doing it," Palmer said. "I’m saying that because they’re communist, because they shoot their own people, they haven’t got a justice system and they want to take over this country. We’re not going to let them do it."
