IPAC leads global campaign to buy Australian wine in stand against China’s economic bullying

By Elishya Perera

SYDNEY, Australia (CWBN)_The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) has launched a global campaign urging people to buy Australian wine in response to the latest round of sanctions imposed on Australia by the Chinese government.

Australian wine was recently added to the growing list of commodities facing sanctions from China as the communist regime announced a tariff of up to 212 per cent on wine producers from Canberra last week.

An international cross-party group of legislators working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China, IPAC announced the campaign in a video shared on Monday (Nov 30). The video featured members of the alliance calling on their compatriots to give up their usual national beverages in favour of Australian wine this December.

Those speaking in the video represent a diverse group of political allegiances, including US Republican Congressman Ted Yoho, German Green Party MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, Japanese Democrat Rep. Shiori Yamao and former leader of the UK Conservative Party Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP.

Other politicians are also shown boasting of the quality of their country’s alcohol in the video, after which Yoho says that despite how good the various countries’ wine may be, this December everyone will be “drinking something a little different – because our friends need our help.”

The video also features footage of Chinese Foreign Ministry Official Zhao Lijian, who tweeted a fabricated image of an Australian soldier slitting a child’s throat earlier this week in a move which aggravated the growing depute between the two countries.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously called for an investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged from the Wuhan province in China. His comments provoked Beijing, and China slapped Canberra with economic sanctions in retaliation.

The recent tariffs imposed on Australian wine could make business unviable for the $3 billion industry, which sends almost 40 per cent of its exports to Beijing. China alleges that the sanctions are a temporary anti-dumping measure to avoid “material damage” caused to their local market. Nevertheless, Canberra suspects the moves were politically motivated – Beijing has previously blamed Australia for the growing diplomatic row.

“Earlier this month the Chinese government handed the Australian government a list of 14 grievances demanding that Australia stop voicing out in defence of human rights and rules-based order,” Australian senator Kimberley Kitching says in the video.

“China has cancelled a whole range of Australian imports in an attempt to bully us into abandoning our values. One of the worst-affected industries is the Australian wine industry. This isn’t just an attack on Australia, it’s an attack on free countries everywhere.”

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ambassador to the Holy See Li Shih-ming also joined this campaign launched by IPAC. The Taiwanese embassy uploaded a picture on Facebook of the Ambassador holding a large box of Australian red wine, quoting Pope Francis’ latest encyclical “All Brothers” to point out that “Fraternity is not a trend or fashion… but the result of concrete acts”. The embassy included the hashtag “#SolidaritywithAustralia” on the post.

Edited by Kaveesha Fernando