China may be about to tell Australia where to stick its opinions, and its iron ore. Photo: AFP
Opinion
Opinion
Abacus by Neil Newman
China-Australia clash may be more about Beijing’s economic fears than a coronavirus probe
China is doing to Australia what the Brits did to China with tea 200 years ago, when China learned a hard lesson about spending too much hard currency
With iron ore mines in Africa and a port in Papua, China is falling back on its own ‘empire’, perhaps out of fears its economic strength is a post-Covid blip