ExclusiveAustralia firms in China say bilateral tensions now a bigger risk than weak economy: survey

Name: China's ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy counterproductive, says former Australian PM Turnbull
Uploaded: 2020-07-16T04:38:58.000Z
Duration: 59 s
Description: China's ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy counterproductive, says former Australian PM Turnbull

70 per cent of polled Australian firms express concern about deteriorating China-Australia ties, up from 45 per cent in 2018 survey

But Australian businesses remain optimistic about longer-term opportunities in China, even though Beijing could show its displeasure through subtle import blocks

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China's ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy counterproductive, says former Australian PM Turnbull

Su-Lin Tan

Published: 12:38pm, 16 Jul 2020Updated: 9:32pm, 16 Jul 2020

For Australian businesses with close China ties, tensions between the two countries pose a more worrisome threat than a slowdown in the Chinese economy, a new survey has found.

Although Covid-19 continues to dent earnings for those Australian businesses working with or in China, they currently see Sino-Australian tensions as their biggest business risk, according to the Australia-China business chamber AustCham, which polled 87 businesses in Beijing, Southern China and Western China.

More than 70 per cent of the surveyed businesses said they were concerned about the deteriorating relationship, compared with 45 per cent in a similar 2018 survey.

Just over 50 per cent considered a weakening of the Chinese economy a risk, while 47 per cent said the global recession posed a threat.

The pandemic has continued to wreak havoc on turnover, with nearly half of the respondents saying their annual revenue would fall by 20 per cent compared with a year earlier – an outlook that has worsened since February, at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in China.