The Chinese Government gets angry about a lot of big things. It gets angry about Hong Kongers organising elections, despite that right being enshrined in law. It gets angry about Taiwan asserting its independence, despite the nation never having been ruled by Communist China. It gets angry at Australia wanting an investigation into COVID-19; despite the rest of the world wanting one too.
But it’s seemingly also angry about something very small indeed. Two words; a mere 11 letters. “Indo Pacific”. It cropped up in a declassified US report last week. And the mere mention of Indo Pacific makes Beijing bristle.
“It all seems academic, but it has real diplomatic consequences and China wouldn’t be going to such lengths to cut down Indo Pacific if they didn’t feel it was harmful to them,” a China watcher told news.com.au.
