China has only itself to blame for Australia's move on Hong Kong

The Australian government and its partners had no choice but to recognise the new reality in the territory and offer some of its citizens a way out

I feel sorry for Chinese foreign ministry officials, with whom I have had many good conversations over the years. They have been pushed to lambast Australia and other Western democracies with such frequency that they risk running out of fresh invective, hyperbole and idiom.

It was inevitable that Chinese diplomats would excoriate Australia after prime minister Scott Morrison's measured moves this week in response to Beijing's draconian national security legislation for Hong Kong: offering limited sanctuary to Hong Kongers, suspending an extradition treaty with Hong Kong and heightening the travel warning for the city.