Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, described as a “complete fool” by China’s media
July 17, 2014
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is scrambling to diffuse a diplomatic crisis with China this week over her reported comments to Fairfax that she planned to take tougher stand on China than her Labor predecessors.
The comments have prompted criticism from China’s media, including the country’s most popular tabloid, China’s Global Times, which described the Australian Foreign Minister as a “complete fool”. Julie Bishop has reportedly written to China’s official news agency adamant that her comments were misrepresented. In a broad ranging attack, the Global Times editorial said Australia was a European outpost settled by “outlaws and rascals” yet it had a completely deluded sense of its power in the Asian region.