China - Australia Relations: PM Morrison Follows Trump's Lead, Wants Investigation Into Coronavirus

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday reiterated his call for an investigation into China’s role in the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, angering Beijing.

“This is a virus that has taken more than 200,000 lives across the world,” he told reporters in the Australian city of Canberra. “It has shut down the global economy. The implications and impacts of this are extraordinary.”

“Now, it would seem entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred, so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again,” he continued.

Morrison reportedly spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders last week, asking for international support for the investigation.

“Unless a broad coalition of countries from across the ideological spectrum back [Australia’s] call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, it’s going nowhere,” Graeme Smith, a researcher on Pacific affairs at Australian National University, wrote in an article for The Conversation earlier this month.

Chinese state-run media has lashed out at Morrison’s call for a probe of how the virus originated.

“After the epidemic, we need to have more risk awareness when doing business with Australia and also when we send our children to study there,” Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-run Global Times, wrote on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. “Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.”

Jingye Cheng, China’s ambassador to Australia, suggested the investigation could result in a boycott of Australian goods.

“Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’" she told the Australian Financial Review.

Trump on Monday said his administration is undertaking “very serious” investigations into Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We’re doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China,” Trump said.

"We believe it could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world," he said.

Trump, who escalated a trade war with China in 2019, also suggested that the U.S. could seek “substantial” compensation from China due to the virus.

The coronavirus originated at an animal and seafood market in Wuhan, China, and has since spread around the world. As of Wednesday at 12:05 p.m. ET, there are 3,142,942 cases of the virus worldwide and a global death toll of 218,649.