Beijing to Canberra, Washington: don’t ‘blackmail China’

Beijing tells Australia to engage directly with it, not ‘form a clique’ with US, despite refusing calls for almost a year.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

Beijing has accused Canberra and Washington of trying to “blackmail China” after the Biden administration raised the economic coercion of Australia at a tense meeting in Alaska.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing after the combustible first face-to-face meeting between the new US administration and China, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Morrison government should stop co-ordinating with its ally.

“The attempt to form a clique to pressure and blackmail China, even intimidate China by virtue of someone else won‘t work,” Ms Hua said.

“There are direct flights between Australia and China. Taking a detour via the US is only counter-productive,” she said.

Since last April, Beijing has launched trade strikes on more than $20 billion of Australian exports to China, including black-listing coal, banning timber, crippling wine and barley with tariffs, and halting the lobster trade by threatening Chinese buyers.

During the almost 12 month campaign, ministers in President Xi Jinping’s government have refused to take calls or reply to letters from their Australian counterparts.

This week Trade Minister Dan Tehan told The Australian he hoped China would re-engage with Australia “sooner rather than later”.

Biden’s administration has made co-ordinating with allies and partners a key part of its China strategy.

Ahead of the first senior face-to-face meeting between US and Chinese sides in almost 9 months, Biden’s most senior Indo-Pacific official Kurt Campbell said Beijing’s relationship with Washington would not improve until the trade strikes against Australia ended.

“We have made clear that the US is not prepared to improve relations in a bilateral and separate context at the same time that a close and dear ally is being subjected to a form of economic coercion,” Mr Campbell said.

“We are not going to leave Australia alone on the field.”

At the testy meeting in Alaska, Xi’s most senior diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi bristled at the Biden administration’s public defence of its allies.

“To accuse China of coercion even before sharing the relevant views with China, is this the right act to do? Of course not,” said Minister Wang in a stern address delivered in front of a pool of TV cameras.

Earlier, Director Yang delivered a more than 15 minute tirade, attacking the U.S. and praising the Chinese Communist Party’s achievements.

“The United States is not in a position to speak to China from a position of superiority. The Chinese people don’t take this crap,” he said in comments that were widely cheered in China.

Despite the sweeping trade sanctions, Australia’s total exports to China hit a record high in January and February, as the elevated price of iron ore has more than offset the retaliation campaign.

The state-controlled Global Times on Monday evening said it hoped a recent drop in the iron ore price would correct Australia’s “smug” attitude.

“It would probably be a good thing if after the fall in iron ore prices, the China-Australia trade data could more accurately reflect the true problems with Australia‘s economy,” the nationalistic tabloid wrote.

“Only when real pain is felt by the Australian economy will Canberra be motivated to seek structural changes to its economy, creating a better environment for trade.”