China’s ambassador blames Australia’s ‘economic coercion’ for breakdown in relations
- Cheng Jingye cited Australian government’s decision to cancel infrastructure deal between Beijing and the state of Victoria among litany of ‘negative moves’
- ‘Clinging to ideological bias as well as Cold War mentality and regarding China as a threat will lead nowhere,’ he told a group of business leaders
Citing Australia’s decision last week to cancel agreements between Beijing’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative and the state of Victoria among a litany of “negative moves”, ambassador Cheng Jingye said the country’s perception of China as a “threat and challenge” had hurt relations. He called claims of Chinese economic coercion “ridiculous and irrelevant”.
“If there is any coercion, it must be done by the Australian side,” Cheng told business leaders in a video address on Thursday, according to a transcript. “What China has done is only aimed to uphold its legitimate rights and interests, prevent bilateral ties from further plunging and move them back onto the right track.”
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While he did not directly mention China, he said free nations were watching “worryingly the militarisation of issues that we had, until recent years, thought unlikely to be catalysts for war”.
The battle of words shows there’s no obvious circuit-breaker to help mend relations that have been in free fall for a year after Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government called for independent investigators to enter Wuhan to probe the origins of the coronavirus.
Beijing has since inflicted a range of trade reprisals, including crippling tariffs on Australian barley and wine, while blocking coal shipments.