CRI听力:China Labels Palmer's "Mongrel" Comment Absurd

The Chinese embassy in Australia has labelled Clive Palmer's stinging verbal attack on the country as "absurd" and "irresponsible".

On the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night, Palmer called the Chinese government "mongrels" and claimed they "shoot their own people".

"We'll be suing them and they'll be answering the question. We've had three judgments in the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Western Australia and an arbitration against these Chinese mongrels, I'm saying that because they're Communist, because they shoot their own people, they haven't got a justice system and they want to take over this country. And we're not going to let them do it."

The tirade began when Palmer was questioned about a legal dispute between his mining company Mineralogy and its Chinese state-owned partner, CITIC Pacific Mining.

CITIC said in court that Palmer siphoned 12 million Australian dollars (11 million US dollars) to fund his Palmer United Party's election campaign. Palmer accused Beijing of trying to take over Australia.

"It won't stop the fact that the Chinese government wants to bring workers here to destroy our wage system. It won't stop the fact that they want to take over our ports and get our resources for free. So far they've shifted 200 million, sorry, 200 million (Australian) dollars worth of iron ore out of this country without paying for it. I don't mind standing up against the Chinese bastards and stop them from doing it. And I'll be doing that mate, don't worry about that."

Palmer said CITIC had shipped 187 million US dollars in iron ore from Australia without paying royalties to Western Australian state.
Senior figures across Australian politics sought to distance themselves and the Australian government from Palmer.

Treasurer Joe Hockey described Palmer's tirade as "hugely damaging."

"Well, I think it is hugely damaging for Mr. Palmer to make those sort of comments, because ultimately he is the big beneficiary of a Chinese investment partner, someone that is paid to help him develop his resources. Now, he's in a very obvious legal dispute with his Chinese partners. But I'd say to Mr. Palmer, 'Please do not bring down the rest of Australia because of your biases'."

Citic has previously warned that Palmer's aggressive behaviour could force other Chinese companies to reconsider putting money into his other ventures.

For more on this, we are joined by Kerry Brown, Executive Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and Professor of Chinese Politics... ...