'And you, Brutus?': Chinese official explains hurt over Australia's COVID-19 probe

Amid row over the coronavirus probe initiated by Australia, China's deputy head of mission in Australia Wang Xining compared its World War-II ally to "Brutus approaching Julius Caesar".

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Wang said the "shocking proposal" from Australia which was "supposed to be a good friend of China", explained: "I think it is approximately identical to Julius Caesar in his final day when he saw Brutus approaching him: Et tu, Brute?"

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Wang used the Latin phrase "Et tu, Brute?" meaning "And you, Brutus?"

"We respect the traditional relationship between Australia and the United States but China was your ally during the World War-II. The problem is whether you target a third party with the strength of an alliance. This is what we do not agree with. If we find any tendency to use the strength of an alliance to strike China what currently some of the US politicians are doing, then we will express clearly our opposition and our position," Wang insisted.

United States, Canada, European Union and the United Kindom, including Australia, had raised concern about the origin of coronavirus and had asked for an independent probe. The Chinese government eventually allowed a World Health Organization(WHO) team to visit the country to conduct the investigation.

Wang said that Chinese blogs, Chinese websites and even the comments of the blog had expressed "indignation, anger and frustration" over Australia's sudden move.

"We made our representations to the Australian government which is well aware of what the differences are, and we made clear to our counterparts that we should work together to enhance the efficiency and the profitability of bilateral collaboration on whatever field," Wang added.