Will we stand with the protesters of Hong Kong? Crucially would Australia, among others, be able to keep talking to Beijing, to keep diplomatic channels open?

The coronavirus crisis has brought front-and-centre the question of how the world lives with an increasingly-powerful authoritarian China. We have already seen a descent into insult and threat — from both sides.

It has been called a new Cold War, perhaps so, but China is far more critical to the global economy and more interconnected with our lives than the Soviet Union was.

The China challenge also comes at a time when freedom and democracy is weaker in the West. The world was always heading to this moment.

via Hong Kong and China’s fate has been clear all along. Xi Jinping is seeing it through – ABC News