China in the china shop

And they want two things: (i) to pull their own people into line. Particularly the smaller iron ore companies within China which have been doing their own deals with the larger importers; and (ii) to intimidate foreign suppliers into seeing things China’s way.

The Chinese government doesn’t care what we think of it. The Chinese government only cares what its own people think of it. This is why China’s leadership group always plays to the home gallery when it is confronted with a mess of its own making. It does this by blaming outside forces for its difficulties. For example; the Tibetan riots are blamed on the refugee Dalai Lama, the Uighur riots are blamed on the refugee Rebiya Kadeer, and the iron-ore fiasco is blamed on corrupt foreign corporations.

In fact, this iron-ore incident tells us more about China’s leadership group than it does about China’s problems with internal corruption in its own iron-ore industry.

China’s leaders are not as secure as they would have everybody believe. And every poor peasant farmer in the hinterland, as well as every rich businessman on the coast, knows the reason why.

Australia should reassess its relationship with the Middle Kingdom. We have been kidding ourselves. And although this incident has exposed the lie about our “special relationship” with china, it has also been a timely wake-up call for our business and political leaders.

China has done us all a favour by bursting this bubble. Only good can come of this.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should hold his nerve. So far he has done everything right.

China needs Australia just as much as Australia needs China.