Beijing: In case he had any lingering doubts, the Chinese foreign ministry has made clear their worsening opinion of Clive Palmer.
The miner-turned-politician's rant on live television against China's communist "mongrels" who "shoot their own people" was deemed worthy of an official response, front and centre on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on Thursday.
"The relevant remarks made by Clive Palmer, a member of the house of representatives of the Australian Federal Parliament, are completely unreasonable and absurd, to which we express our strong condemnation," spokesman Qin Gang said.
It took a full day for the Palmer United Party leader's remarks to jump the language barrier – and for China's state-controlled media to calibrate its level of outrage – before reports on his outburst filtered through to the mainland's main newspapers and internet news portals on Wednesday.
The Abbott government's swift condemnation of Mr Palmer's comments, and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's decision to contact the Chinese embassy to distance herself from Mr Palmer's views, appeared to help dampen the flames.
"We noted that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Foreign Minister [Julie] Bishop and other senior officials as well as people from all walks of life have publicly refuted Palmer's words," Mr Qin said in the foreign ministry's statement. "This shows that Palmer is alone in what he said and did."
Han Feng, from the country's top think-tank Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said while the Chinese government would "definitely be not happy" with the incident, they would understand that despite being a member of Parliament, he does not represent the majority of Australian people or the government. "He only represents himself," he said.
But in a typically colourful editorial, the fiercely nationalistic Global Times, an offshoot of the Communist Party's flagship newspaper People's Daily, said Mr Palmer's "rampant rascality" symbolised the "unfriendly attitude" broader Australian society had toward China and was the "last straw for worsening Sino-Australian relations".
The Global Times also led the charge during a media storm that erupted in China last month, over Tony Abbott's praise for Japanese soldiers that served during World War II, and an interview Ms Bishop gave to Fairfax Media where she intimated Australia would not be afraid to stand up for its values in the strongest signal yet the Abbott government would be prepared to take a more robust approach to bilateral relations than previous governments.
This is also in the context of Australia strengthening military ties with both the United States and Japan, which Beijing views as containment.
The multibillion-dollar losses Citic Pacific has accumulated on the disastrous Sino Iron project has become an infamous case study in China of what not to do when "going out" and investing overseas.
The diplomatic fury in China has emboldened its trade deal negotiators to push harder on one of the biggest sticking points in the bilateral free trade agreement – the movement of Chinese workers to work on its Australian projects.
Others have questioned whether Ms Bishop's move to so quickly reassure the Chinese over Mr Palmer's remarks smacked of weakness and a fear of offending the country's largest trading partner.
As editor of the Lowy Interpreter Sam Roggeveen points out, Australia's image as a robust democracy is seen as one of our greatest soft-power strengths.
"So while Bishop was telling the Chinese ambassador how disgraceful Palmer's comments were, I hope she also found time to say that this sort of thing is commonplace in a democracy, and that as a nation we not only survive it but are even strengthened by the debate it provokes," he said.
