Animals play quite a role in Australia's up-and-down relations with China. A generation ago an Australian foreign minister explaining why Canberra continued to oppose relations with Beijing said that "before you pat a dog you have to make sure it will not bite you."
Now more than 40 years later Beijing's Global Times tabloid has hit back. Canberra with its criticisms of China's advance into the South China Sea "is not even a 'paper tiger,' it's only a 'paper cat' at best." It also has an inglorious history of aborigine suppression and so on.
The trigger for this surprising torrent of abuse against a one-time "strategic partner" is the way Canberra has joined with Japan and the United States in opposing China's efforts to convert seven isolated shoals and reefs in the South China Sea into islands with harbors, airfields and even tourist facilities.