If you prod the tiger, the tiger will snarl - and maybe bite

And nobody, but nobody, should push Australia around. And, yes, the Chinese reaction was deeply offensive.

But there are ways of doing things. You need to pick your fights, even with a bully.

China's animosity towards Australia was, if not sparked initially, then certainly inflamed when Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia would push for an independent international inquiry into the outbreak of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison followed up a few days later by suggesting the World Health Organization needed the power to go into countries and investigate the source of epidemics - what are called "weapons inspector powers".

Context is everything. At the time, President Trump was using racist language about China - he was referring to COVID-19 as "kung flu".

It might have been sensible for Australia to keep out of that fight - but the government chose not to. We can only surmise at the dynamic: Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph was promoting the Trumpian narrative.

In Canberra, US ambassador Arthur B. Culvahouse seemed to have an open line to the paper: "The Chinese government has created a global pandemic through their 'gross negligence, obsessive secrecy and brazen dishonesty' - and is now using it to advance their interest in our region, the United States ambassador to Australia says," as the paper put it on May 15.

Mr Morrison is no stranger to the paper, either - but maybe this time he should have resisted the urge to join Mr Murdoch and Mr Trump's party.

There's a contrast to be made between the Australian and the New Zealand approaches to China. Neither is kowtowing, but Jacinda Ardern's government is being cannier. New Zealand's trade with China remains undamaged.

Ms Ardern has raised concerns with the Chinese government over the offensive doctored image about Australian war crimes in Chinese state media, but generally she's been much more measured and sure-footed.

On the call for an international inquiry into the origins of the epidemic, for example, New Zealand waited until there was a weight of support for it. In the end, an inquiry has been arranged but it will only happen once the pandemic is contained, and its brief doesn't mention China.

New Zealand also acted later than Australia in condemning Beijing's heavy assertion of control over Hong Kong and the curtailing of human rights there.

The allies in the "Five Eyes" countries (the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand) discussed a response. Four of them issued a joint statement and New Zealand issued a separate statement, saying much the same.

"The art of the delivery is the key," according to Lai-Ha Chan, who lectures at the University of Technology in Sydney.

"By voicing its concern over Hong Kong's freedom, Ardern has shown its allies and the world that New Zealand stands for and treasures the democratic values of freedom and human rights. Simultaneously, from the position of Beijing, this separate statement is perceived as less confrontational than a collective one; Wellington thus could 'escape' the wrath of its top trading partner."

The problem for Australia now is that China may have decided to make an example of it - in effect, saying to other countries: "Just look at how we can hit your economy if you step out of line." Australian producers of coal, lobster, barley, beef and now wine know the economic power China can exert - power which affects Australian incomes and jobs.

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China is not going away. Far from it. It will almost certainly have the biggest economy in the world within a decade, according to Professor Jane Golley, director of the ANU's Australian Centre on China in the World.

She despairs at the thought that China could be confronted in a new Cold War between two opposing powers.

She would like to see a much more nuanced attitude taken towards China. Criticise it when it's in the wrong, but recognise its achievements - and you only have to look at its economy to realise there are achievements.

And be straight in criticism.

"We need to be less duplicitous about calling out China's bad behaviour but being silent on the US," she says, citing both countries' breach of World Trade Organization rules.

"The Chinese see that duplicity and it infuriates them," she says.

This relationship is changing by the day. A Biden presidency will change the environment, but nobody knows how.

Be sure of this, though: we will have to live with China. It's where our economic future lies. Jacinda Ardern knows that. Does Scott Morrison?