China-Australia relations: Beijing’s trade restrictions are meant as a warning to Canberra, but will they work?
- China is ‘seeking to both punish Australia for taking certain decisions and warn off other countries from adopting similar policies’, John Lee, a former national security adviser to Canberra, says
- ‘Beijing is trying to make an example of Australia,’ international relations expert Pichamon Yeophantong says
The trade dispute, which looks set to get worse, is part of China’s efforts to punish Australia and warn other countries against taking similar actions, they say.
Chinese state media reported recently that Beijing is planning to extend the import curbs to Australian coal.
John Lee, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said that despite Beijing’s intentions, its trade curbs could have the opposite effect.
“China is seeking to both punish Australia for taking certain decisions and warn off other countries from adopting similar policies,” the former Australian national security adviser, said.
“[But] China’s actions have given rise to a growing Australian discussion among government and business leaders about the need to diversify and lower reliance on China.
“The problem for China is that it needs to cooperate with these advanced economies to achieve its economic objectives, hence, it is shooting itself in the foot in the long term.”