CANBERRA (CU)_The Australian government on Wednesday (21 April) revoked two agreements signed between the state of Victoria and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying the Pacific nations would not be bullied by anyone.
The federal government overruled that Victoria state’s decision to join Beijing’s signature infrastructure-building project, as the agreement was inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy. However, the move provoked China to warn Australia of retaliatory action, adding that the decision would seriously harm relations between the two countries.
Diplomatic ties between Beijing and Canberra reached a new low last year, following Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call for an investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the blocking of Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
Subsequently, in December, the Australian Parliament enacted a new law that gave the foreign minister powers to scrap agreements reached between state governments and overseas governments which were deemed to threaten the country’s national interests. Many believed that an early target of the new piece of legislation would be the BRI agreement, as critics say that the Initiative is used by Beijing to create geopolitical and financial leverage.
“We can’t allow these sort of compacts… to pop up because they’re used for propaganda reasons and we’re just not going to allow that to happen,” Defence Minister Peter Dutton told local radio. He went on to criticise the state of Victoria for making the deal, saying: “Victoria needs to explain why it is the only state in the country that has entered into this agreement.”
Meanwhile, responding to the move on Thursday, Beijing said that it would damage mutual trust between the two countries, adding that it reserves the right to take further actions in response.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the decision “recklessly interferes in and destroys normal exchange and cooperation, and seriously harms China-Australia relations and mutual trust between the countries”. “China reserves the right to take further action in response to this,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dutton defended Canberra’s decision saying Australia will not be bullied by anyone. “We are going to stand up for what we believe in and that’s exactly what we’ve done here,” he said.
While other agreements between local governments and foreign powers are under consideration, another target of the new law could be the presence of Chinese Communist Party-backed Confucius Institutes at Australia’s public universities.
