Coronavirus: Australia calls China’s envoy over ‘disappointing’ remarks

Trade minister says ‘economic coercion or threats of coercion’ won’t change Canberra’s position on the need for an inquiry into the pandemic

Ambassador Cheng Jingye has slammed the move as ‘politically motivated’ and suggested it could have consequences

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Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye said the push for a coronavirus inquiry could inflame anti-Australian sentiment in China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:00pm, 28 Apr 2020Updated: 5:55am, 29 Apr 2020

Australia has called China’s ambassador to the country over his suggestion there would be economic consequences to Canberra’s push for an independent inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham on Tuesday said Frances Adamson, secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, had spoken to Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye about his “disappointing” remarks, but he declined to give details of the discussion.

“Australia is no more going to change our policy position on a major public health issue because of economic coercion or threats of coercion than we would change our policy position in matters of national security,” he told ABC News.

“But our government is very clear that we’ve seen enormous loss of life around the world of hundreds of thousands of people, huge economic disruption to billions of lives across the planet, and of course that warrants transparent investigation to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the Australian policy position would not change. Photo: EPA-EFE

The Chinese embassy in Canberra released a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying Adamson had told Cheng during the call that the inquiry did not target China and was not politically motivated. Cheng responded that the proposal was a “political manoeuvre”, and rejected concerns over comments he made to the Australian Financial Review on Sunday.