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Comes after China took aim at Australian wine industry with 212 per cent tariff
China has boldly gloated that Australian wine exports will plummet under new tariffs - wiping millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs from the industry - while claiming the only reason they bought our bottles was because they were cheap .
The claim was made in a piece by the Global Times, a mouthpiece for the communist government, after China imposed additional 6.3 per cent duties on Australian wine from Friday.
The Beijing-sponsored newspaper said the only reason Chinese consumers bought Australian wine was because it s cheap , and would now look to buy wine from other countries such as Chile.
The article, which was published on Thursday, claims the new trade tariffs could cause a wine and grape glut in Australia when demand from Chinese importers drops .
The editor-in-chief of Chinese government mouthpiece The Global Times enjoyed lunch at the Australian embassy in Beijing on Wednesday as a guest of our ambassador.
Australia s top diplomat in China, Graham Fletcher, invited outspoken Australian critic Hu Xijin to dine with him a few hours before the tabloid decided that China-Australia relations need to improve .
Editor Hu and his paper published a piece recently saying Scott Morrison should slap himself in the face after he demanded an apology over a fake image of an Australian soldier tweeted by a Chinese official.
Editor of The Global Times, Hu Xijin (pictured), has been one of Australia s loudest critics in China recently
Furious Australians are vowing to boycott some of the nation s biggest wine brands after a viral post named and shamed 41 vineyards with links to China.
The move comes after China imposed a 212 per cent tariff on Australian wine last week which threatens to cripple the $6billion industry. And on Thursday, China s Commerce Ministry increased the pain even further by imposing additional duties of between 6.3 and 6.4 per cent which will be introduced on Friday.
The massive tariffs and duties on Australian wine - which exports a staggering 39% of all its product to China - followed claims by the Beijing foreign exporters were dumping cheap wine on the Chinese market.