Why China's infamous '14 grievances' list was a 'massive own goal'

Australia's top diplomat has labelled China's infamous "14 grievances" list a "massive own goal."

Frances Adamson, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and a former ambassador to Beijing, said the list, handed exclusively to 9News "had played very negatively" for China.

"I couldn't understand why they did it and I don't know that they really understood themselves, exactly what they were doing with that list," she said.

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A Chinese government official handed the list to 9News at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra last November.

The official said: "China is angry, if you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy," and made it clear Canberra's already frosty relationship with Beijing could improve if ground was to be given on issues like foreign interference laws, and the decision to ban Huawei from the rollout of 5G, which were laid out as grievances.

So too was Australia's decision to call for an independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus, "outrageous condemnation of the governing party of China by MPs", and "an unfriendly or antagonistic report on China by media, poisoning the atmosphere of bilateral relations."

"My assessment then to be very blunt, and I've only got two days to go, so I will be, was that it was a massive own goal by China," Ms Adamson said after a speech at the National Press Club to mark the end of her tenure as Australia's top diplomat.

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"No Australian government, no democratically elected government anywhere in the world could say that those things weren't important," she said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison read the grievances to world leaders at the G7 summit in Cornwall.

9News understands it was the first time US President Joe Biden heard the details directly, and French President Emmanuel Macron took it back to his own Cabinet.

"I think it's played very negatively for them (China) and most recently in Cornwall," Ms Adamson said.

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