The comments you quote from Scomo seem to indicate, at least to me, that he does not view the move as a bridge-building or friendship exercise. I believe he is saying that, when you interpret the move in the context of what he claims to be "coercive acts and many statements attacking Australia", it is not a friendly move. To be clear, I think Australia is like 80 percent to blame for what has happened, and they played the victim mentality after they threw the first punch. But I am just paraphrasing what I think he said.
Clearly, everyone is against my comment, and I kind of regret making it - there's just no need. But I must clarify that I don't view the move as a provocation, but it will be perceived as a provocation by Australians, whether that be the voters or the Government. I am just talking about perceptions. If the Australian tries to use the incident as a way to drum up public support for more defence spending, that would not be good for China or regional stability.
I don't know if anyone has been watching Australian TV, but there has been some fairly rabid voices calling for a military invasion of the Solomon Islands. They are not the mainstream opinion, to be sure, but they have been given a voice. This is what I mean when I said we don't want them to do anything drastic - don't fuel what really should be fringe views.
