China accuses Australia of bullying acts and ‘playing the victim’
Despite a $20bn-plus trade strike and waves of cyber attacks, Beijing says it’s never undermined Australia’s sovereignty.
Australia “has played the victim” after “bullying” China, according to a spokesman for Xi Jinping’s administration.
After launching trade strikes on Australian exports worth more than $20b a year and greenlighting waves of cyber attacks, a foreign ministry spokesman said China had never undermined Australia’s sovereignty.
“The label of so-called ‘economic coercion’ can never be pinned onto China,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Mr Wang said it was Australia that was “guilty” of “bullying acts”, which he did not specify.
“Meanwhile [Australia] has played the victim to put the blame on China, ganged up to pressure China, and grossly interfered in China‘s internal affairs and harmed China’s core interests in violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations,” he said.
The Chinese official was responding to a speech by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg this week that urged Australian businesses to adopt a “China plus” strategy to reduce their vulnerability to Beijing.
The Treasurer said Xi’s China had tried to pressure Australia to “compromise on our core values”.
“And when we have stood firm, as we always will, we have been subjected to economic coercion,” he said.
Mr Frydenberg said Australia’s experience offered a lesson for the almost 130 other countries that have China as their biggest trading partner.
“[China] offers economic ‘carrots’ through initiatives such as the Belt and Road. And it threatens economic consequences for perceived misdeeds,” he said.
China began its trade strike campaign on Australia last April after the Morrison government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.
Following a warning from China’s ambassador in Canberra, crippling tariffs were imposed on Australian barley and wine, and timber was banned. Coal and lobsters were both unofficially black-listed.
Beijing’s state media — and at times Wang’s foreign ministry counterparts — have directly linked the trade strikes to behaviour from Canberra they say is unacceptable.
A sweeping list of 14 grievances Beijing has with Canberra was circulated by Wang’s foreign ministry counterparts in Australia last November.
Those grievances included blocking Chinese foreign investment into Australia, banning Huawei from Australia’s 5G network, passing foreign interference legislation and calling for the inquiry into Covid’s origins.
“If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy,” said a Canberra-based Chinese diplomat when the list was circulated last year.
In Beijing on Tuesday, Wang said the bilateral breakdown was “entirely of Australia’s own making”.
“It is imperative that Australia should face up to the crux of the setbacks in bilateral relations, abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias, respect basic facts, take an objective and rational look at China and its development, earnestly follow the principles of mutual respect and equality when handling bilateral relations,” he said.
“The Australian side should also stop playing up ‘coercive China’ narrative for selfish political gain and do more to enhance mutual trust and promote practical co-operation between the two countries, rather than the opposite.”
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