China is again warning its students studying in Australia, telling them to be aware of a “serious threat” to their safety. In an alert issued on Friday, the Chinese Ministry of Education pointed to “successive vicious incidents of overseas students being attacked in many places in Australia”, without giving specific examples. It also noted that international travel still poses great risks amid the coronavirus pandemic, urging overseas students to “conduct proper safety risks assessments, and be cautious in choosing to go to or return to Australia for their studies”. The ministry issued a similar warning in June, urging Chinese students to consider the risks of studying in Australia. That statement also cited the impact of the pandemic and a spike in racial discrimination against people of Asian descent . Could New Zealand serve as an ‘honest broker’ to repair ties between China and the West? The latest warning further highlights the strained ties between the two countries. Trade relations began to deteriorate after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called in April for an international probe into the origins of the coronavirus without consulting Beijing. Canberra has also accused Beijing of turning a blind eye to human rights violations, particularly in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, amid reports ranging from forced labour to genocide. In November, China released a list of 14 grievances against Australia – including Canberra’s rejection of Chinese investments and “antagonistic” reporting by Australian media – saying these had helped “poison bilateral relations”. The Australian government said this week that it is ready to reset fractured diplomatic ties, but Chinese state media described his comments as “disingenuous” , adding that “it will take more than a verbal olive branch to repair” the relationship. China’s Ministry of Commerce has also given a cold shoulder to Australia’s new trade minister, Dan Tehan , who said he had not received a reply to the letter he sent last month to China’s new commerce minister, Wang Wentao, about kick-starting discussions on trade disputes and lifting the ban on Australian coal. Chinese state media said Australia was “pulling another publicity stunt” . “The current difficult situation in China-Australia relations is not what China wants to see,” commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said last week when asked if China was open to lifting a ban on Australian coal. “A healthy and stable China-Australia relationship is in the common interests of both countries,” he said. “It is hoped that Australia will do more things that are conducive to mutual trust and cooperation between China and Australia, and push China-Australia relations back on track at an early date.”