Coronavirus backlash adds to trade war and decoupling pressure to fray China’s ties to global system
- US-China trade war, coronavirus pandemic, decoupling and deglobalisation have soured the mood in Beijing towards the global economic system
- Ahead of National People’s Congress, debate over China’s belligerent response to coronavirus pandemic was already under way in the capital
This is the seventh in a nine-part series examining the issues Chinese leaders face as they gather for their annual “two sessions” of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference this week. This story will examine China’s changing role in the global economy.
Up until last week, almost all the Angus beef raised on Robert Mackenzie’s 15,000 acre family farm in Newcastle, New South Wales, was bound for China.
“After a month it will really start to hurt me. When there’s a suspension it hurts the farmer, the producer, the family, and the consumer. This time we’ve felt the brunt,” said Mackenzie, who uses one of the affected plants to process the meat from his farm.
Australian beef ranchers like Mackenzie, along with the barley exporters now facing an 80 per cent tariff to ship to China, can be added to South Korean retailers, banana farmers in the Philippines, Canadian canola growers, Norwegian salmon fishers, as unknowing business groups caught in the political crossfire with China over the years.
But the latest fracas comes as China is arguably becoming increasingly untethered from the global economic system, sparking fears that China could deploy even more aggressive trade actions as a matter of course.