The easiest way to see how this should have been handled is replace the word "China" with the word "US".
If the virus had originated from (say) the US instead of China, how would the Australian Gov react ?
In actuality, you can go back to 2009 and see how our Australian Gov reacted when the Swine Flu virus, originated from the US, spread around the world. Note, the Swine Flu infected some 60M people and killed over 500,000, including over 2,000 Australian. It still infect and kills people every year.
Any way, the US CDC had known about Swine Flu Virus around 2005, but did not inform WHO until April 2009.
Contrast that to Chinese Gov who supposedlyknew about the Covid 19 virus in Nov 2019, but did not inform WHO until 31 Dec 2019 (one month late).
Back in 2009, the Australian Gov reaction was muted, to the US, in Not informing us of the Swine Flu virus in 2005. Our Gov made little to no protests to the US government when we were informed of the virus in April 2009 - four years later.
Compare to now: our Gov went crazy against the Chinese Gov for being one month late, in informing WHO about Covid 19.
Our Gov has literally parrot everything the Trump administration has accused China of. We have literally become the "waterboy" for Trump, who is looking for a scapegoat to blame, for his mishandling of Covid 19 in the US.
The Chinese Gov can see the double standard being applied here, and they are angry.
That is why the Chinese Gov have accused us of being the lapdog of the US.
You should note, the Chinese Gov are NOT directing such vitriol towards New Zealand or Canadian Governments!
And trade deals between China and NZ or China and Canada are NOT being affected!
We should remember our country have a multi-national security alliance with the US, Not a multi-national trade alliance. We are on our own in Trades.
The US will Not and has Not refrain from taking away our trade deals with China - refer to barley as an example.
One should further note, our country has had huge trade surpluses with China - ie. more than USD $70B per year. This is greater than our Gov's stimulus 1 cash giveaway.
Now, imagine that amount of money being lost every year to our economy. If that eventuate, we will either be in a recession for a long time or be loaded with so much debts that will bring about high interest rates.
IMHO, what Trump does to deflect blame for his own incompetence, should NOT be parroted by our Gov. We should forge our own independent policies over Covid 19, like NZ and Canada has done. Trump is NOT our Prime Minister - his petty feuds should NOT be ours.
Our security alliance with the US should be viewed over the long term, that supersede the views of any one-term President.
