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SYDNEY: The tension between Australia and China has been fueled by incorrect assumptions shaped by the rivalry between China and the United States, but Australia has its own independent interests and views, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (November 23).
Australia’s relationship with China soured in 2018 when it became the first country to publicly ban Huawei from China from its 5G network, and it got worse this year when Australia called for an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus.
As ties deteriorated, China imposed tariffs on Australian barley and slowed its imports of Australian meat and coal.
READ: Australia requests trade talks with China, will not abandon momentum of COVID-19 investigation
But Morrison said in a speech that Australia had been unfairly tried.
“Our actions are viewed and misinterpreted by some only through the lens of strategic competition between China and the United States,” Morrison said.
“It is as if Australia does not have its own unique interests or views as an independent sovereign state. This is false and unnecessarily deteriorates relations.”
Australian government ministers have recently said they wanted to improve communication with China, but their Foreign Ministry has said Australia needs to “take concrete action to correct its mistakes.”
China is by far Australia’s top overall export market, worth $ 104 billion in 2019 according to the International Monetary Fund.
Thus, the disruption of trade ties could be costly for Australia’s economy, which is already languishing from the impact of the new coronavirus.
The economy contracted 7 percent in the three months ending in June, the most since records began in 1959, while the unemployment rate hit a 22-year high of 7.5 percent in July.
