Survey finds Australians don t trust China but want closer economic ties with Beijing anyway dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
En route to this year’s G7+ Summit in the UK, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday delivered a speech in Perth on “A world order that favours freedom”.
He spoke of “Australia’s preparedness to withstand economic coercion in recent times”. As “the most practical way to address economic coercion”, he called for reform of the World Trade Organization, particularly “the restoration of the global trading body’s binding dispute settlement system”.
It wasn’t hard to work out what – and who – he was talking about: China.
But Morrison faces a conundrum in his pitch to reform the WTO to resolve trade disputes with China, which has blocked or restricted Australian exports of beef, wheat, lobster, timber and coal, and imposed high tariffs on barley and wine.
Beijing [China], May 27 (ANI): Australia's ambassador to China Graham Fletcher on Wednesday labelled China's campaign of economic punishment against Australia "vindictive" as the diplomatic relationship between the two countries remains tensed.
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A year on from Canberra calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 and Beijing’s subsequent punishing of Australia via economic coercion, Australia has boldened its position by ripping up Australian state agreements with China and threatening to end Chinese ownership of critical infrastructure in Australia.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced last month that the Victorian state government’s deals with China, which included a 2018 memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative were “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations” and were therefore terminated.
Chinese officials said the decision was “provocative” and would have serious repercussions.
China Has Been ‘Very Clear’ About Their Intentions: Australian Defence Minister
Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton has said that China has been obvious about its intentions in the Indo-Pacific and it wouldn’t be in the country’s national interests to ignore it. He also warned that Australia is already at war on a cyber front from adversaries that he won’t shy away from naming and shaming if they’re state actors.
Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Monday, Dutton said that the Chinese regime had been “very clear about their strategy, their approach and their desires” for the Indo-Pacific region.