It is a brazen thing when a country like Australia so openly criticizes both China (its leading trade partner) and the United States (its guarantor of security). It is more remarkable still that, as the Times puts it, “a fluid working group has emerged” among Australia and other countries of similarly modest global stature—Denmark, Greece, Israel, Singapore, and New Zealand—all of them emboldened by the clear fact that they have handled the COVID-19 crisis more transparently and effectively than the larger powers, especially the U.S. and China.
