Gee it continues. China never actually made a threat. Just watching the news on auntie . They actually mentioned that it just came up as part of a conversation ( article) between the Chinese ambassador and financial review journalist.
Now I can say that I have personally met and had a very cordial conversation with the Chinese ambassador . You couldn't get a more humble and kind person.
I have seen this happen multiple times when the media misquotes a person and when you actually get to listen to the person it seems what was actually said wasn't even close to what was reported.

Carl , He is just the puppet on the string , He is to say what he is instructed to say by the party. It's the Party that's the problem, not the people. The people are scared and do as they are told and he would be no different.

Pete

Yes, diplomats are the official mouthpieces of their countries and thus spout propaganda but, as the USA well knows, a good proportion of so-called diplomatic staff are in fact intelligence agents -- aka spies. Washington DC is spy central in the USA, so it's not too far a stretch to assume that Canberra is spy central here. (NYC, home of the UN, is also crawling with spies under diplomatic cover.)

There have been stories in the media about Chinese students being 'monitored' by other Chinese students who are essentially spies in the employ of the Chinese government. I guess their board and tuition is paid for in return for their services.

Pete what I am saying is it was a interview by the financial review. And blown out of proportion.

I think what will come out of this is every country effected by this will be part of one big investigation which is quite right.
I just really hate how the media blows these things out of proportion.

Of for sure Carl,,Try and find a true good Reporter is near impossible anymore , Note how they have a headline that makes interested and so you click to read it and the headline is irrelevant to the Article! This got worse once the majority of news ended up on the Net.

Getting Cold here now Carl and I guess its the same there! Howling winds and its cold!

Pete

Yes it is very chilly here despite the hot air . Actually one of the things I really noticed was the looks of annoyance on the ABC commentators face when the person being interviewed actually said the truth and they knew they weren't able to change the comments back to their own very biased views.

They reckon it'll be 15 in Sydney tomorrow. It'll probably snow in the Barringtons over the weekend. It's the usual pre-winter cold snap. It's good camping weather. Camp fires are at their best when they are big, to fight off the winter chills. Shame we are in lockdown.

It was 10 in my car tonight so I put the heater on. Only yesterday I had the AC on.

Definition of a diplomat:

"A gentleman who is sent abroad to lie for his country"

So yes, he's doing his job.

It's probably safer to simply assume that everyone in a diplomatic mission is a spy, even if they aren't.

A breeze started here about 8am, and has slowly gotten stronger over the day. Quite sunny though.

Snowing 1 hour drive from here ,hmm and I'm mad !! I have the carpets all torn up and I'm putting bare floor boards so I can sand them tomorrow!
I should be on Medication its madness ........ Pete

Pete if you can completely block that door to under the house it should help.

Ian,
Hi Ian, yes That's a good idea,I will put some ply over it. Do Remember how hot it was in this house when you were here? It was like an Oven, So extreme here, Now its cold like a Tent! ,, All good though and I'm looking forward too the Snow with Pearl. Since you were here,I painted the lounge room, The hallway and wallpapered the walls in the Hall, Painted Pearls Room, pulled up all than Rotten Carpets in the house and I'm sanding the floorboards now So once I'm set up with all my old stuff it will be much better and like a home , Still boxes everywhere and ,Yes Ive bough more junk and its piled up in Basement.
Still happy to be here though ......

Pete

Let's try again...

I saw an article where the Chinese censors are erasing the virus from history, same as they did with the Tiananmen Square massacre.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/coronavirus/coronavirus-survivors-want-answers-and-china-is-silencing-them/ar-BB13BsvT

Some other recent news

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/chinese-state-owned-companies-buy-up-water-in-the-murray-darling/ar-BB13FGif

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/china-warns-hong-kong-protesters-against-stirring-up-trouble/ar-BB13FUdH

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-sentiment-ex/exclusive-internal-chinese-report-warns-beijing-faces-tiananmen-like-global-backlash-over-virus-idUSKBN22G19C

Shopping centre was quite crowded today. I had trouble finding 1.5 metres of space in some places. Also, road traffic is way up. Seems to me that the populace is calling "all clear" despite what the government is saying.