Lowy Institute fellow Alan Dupont, CEO of geopolitical risk consultancy the Cognoscenti Group, commenting on China and our strained relations over the weekend wrote: “The dilemma for Australia is how to steer the ailing ship of state through the decoupling storm at a time of historic weakness and uncertainty.”

In the spirit of debating that dilemma, it is arguable that the world’s nations should treat China’s Communist Party government either as a delinquent teenager who doesn’t know right from wrong or more aptly, perhaps, as a dangerous, uncaring psychopath. 

The irresponsibility of mismanaging the emerging Covid-19 virus smacks of the wild teenager, but the CCP’s overall behaviour smacks of the moral vacuum in which...