[Abbott goes to Taiwan: an unofficial message of Australian solidarity?] It was a week of sound and fury signifying Beijing was seriously unimpressed with Tony Abbott’s trip to Taiwan where he delivered two high-profile addresses to a regional forum. China’s foreign ministry revealed it had lodged a formal protest with Australia over the “extremely absurd” and “selfish” remarks by Australia’s former prime minister, who had warned Beijing might “disastrously lash out” amid aerial shows of force against the democratically ruled island. The Chinese embassy in Canberra attacked Abbott personally as a “failed and pitiful politician”. The barrage prompted Taiwan’s foreign...