China argues Australia will become ‘poor trash of Asia’ if it pulls back on foreign investment
China is at it again launching another scathing attack on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s crackdown on foreign investment.
National
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China has again launched a scathing attack on Australia warning hurting ties “will have consequences Australia cannot afford to bear” and going as far as to say Australia will become “the poor white trash of Asia”.
An article published in the state-owned media outlet the Global Times overnight said “China has been Australia’s largest trading partner, and this market is difficult to replace”.
It comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed to crack down on secret deals between foreign powers with state governments and universities amid rising concern over espionage.
“This is Australia, which keeps resorting to the excuse of ‘national security’ to jeopardize co-operation with China, be it technological, economic, or scientific. Whenever it comes to China, Australia behaves like a nervously alerted bird which tries to find a way out, but ends up facing a dead end,” the article said.
It then takes aim at Australia’s close allies with the US arguing “Australia is the closest follower of the US in terms of restricting Chinese investment and academic exchanges”.
“‘National security’ has been abused by countries which adopt a protectionist and xenophobic stance,” it said.
“Australia is giving up the opportunity to think and act independently, but attaches itself to the US anti-China chariot with alarmist rhetoric.”
The article argues China has been Australia’s largest trading partner, and this market is difficult to replace.
“If Australia views this close economic relationship as well as China-Australia collaboration in other sectors such as science as a burden rather than an opportunity, it will face far-reaching consequences it cannot bear. When that happens, the US won’t come to its rescue,” the article concludes.
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In a separate editorial published in the Global Times, Yu Lei, a chief research fellow at the Research Center for Pacific Island Countries, Liaocheng University, and a research fellow at the Australian Studies Center at Beijing Foreign Studies University,warns Australia will become “the poor white trash of Asia”.
“As Australia suffers soaring unemployment, an old and worn-out railway system, a network speed far slower than other Asian countries’ and halted development plans, the Australian people may start to recall former Prime Minister John Howard’s encouragement of Western leaders to ‘welcome rise of China’,” Lei said.
“Indeed, further decoupling with China will not send China back to poverty, but will only make former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s famous statement more likely to come true: that if Australia doesn’t open up its economy and reduce unemployment, it risks becoming the ‘poor white trash of Asia’,”.
Lei said Australia should ‘abandon the Cold War mentality, and conform to the spirit of world peace, co-development, and win-win.’