Staff members discuss Australia-China bilateral resources and infrastructure cooperation seminar in Western Australia, Beijing, July 23, 2009. REUTERS / Jason Lee
Australia on Wednesday canceled two agreements reached by its state Victoria with China over the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative’s flagship initiative, prompting the Chinese embassy in Canberra to warn that already strained bilateral ties should worsen.
In a new trial in Australia, Foreign Minister Marise Payne has the power to review agreements with other nations by the country’s states and universities.
Payne said it has decided to cancel four transactions, including two that Victoria has agreed with China in 2018 and 2019, on cooperation with the Belt and Road Initiative, a trade and infrastructure scheme signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. .
“I believe these four arrangements are incompatible with Australia’s foreign policy or are negative to our foreign relations,” she said in a statement.
China’s embassy in Australia expressed “strong dissatisfaction and strong opposition” to the cancellations on Wednesday.
“This is another unreasonable and provocative move by the Australian side against China,” the embassy said in a statement. “It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations.”
Bilateral ties were strained in 2018, when Australia became the first country to publicly ban Chinese technology giant Huawei from its 5G network. Relations worsened last year, when Canberra requested an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.
Australia’s latest move “will damage bilateral relations and only end up hurting itself,” the Chinese embassy said.
The Australian federal parliament vetoed foreign agreements by states in December amid escalating diplomatic disputes with China, which imposed a series of trade sanctions on Australian exports, from wine to coal.
Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, refused to accept a country-wide MOU with China under the Belt and Road initiative.
But Victorian Prime Minister Dan Andrews has signed agreements with China’s National Development and Reform Commission to promote the initiative in 2018 and 2019.
Some countries fear that borrowing from the Belt and Road scheme could lead to unsustainable debt levels in developing countries, including the Pacific region.
Morrison’s government has denied that its new veto power is aimed at China, Australia’s largest trading partner and largest source of overseas university students, before the pandemic led the country to close its borders.
Payne said states, local governments and publicly funded universities have notified her of more than 1,000 external bids in total.
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