The story of Australia and China becoming enemies

 

The story of Australia and China becoming enemies

Australia and China are now at loggerheads. Both sides are threatening each other with trade, and fortunately for Asia it has not yet developed into an armed war.

Investigations into the cause of this phenomenon between the two countries show that there is no distant past. In short, as of 2015, Australia and China were the only two countries with good trade relations. On June 17, 2015, China lifted tariffs on 95 Australian products, building a trade understanding between the two countries.

Gradually, however, these relations began to break down, beginning with the Australian rulers' occasional criticism of China. The strongest criticism came from China's use of 5G technology. Australia has accused China of threatening global security through 5G technology. At the same time, Australia imposed higher tariffs on agricultural machinery imported into the country.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 epidemic began, and in March 2020, Australia imposed a number of health quarantine regulations on goods imported from China. In the process, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison once called on the World Health Organization to "look for weapons."

In response, China misrepresented 35 percent of Australian beef shipments to China. After doing so, China told Australia to stay away from the United States.

But by then, Australia had become America's true ally in the Southern Hemisphere, including Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Britain.

Again in June 2020, the Australian side accused China of carrying out a siege attack. But China denied it. Thus began an import-export war between the two countries, with many items on the list, including coal.

China has linked every country that can link its dream project, a belt and a path to world trade, to Australia. One of the steps in China's attempt to establish a Great Trade Zone connecting Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia with Africa and Europe was to strategically attract the world to its views by cooperating with each country. But on April 21, 2021, Australia announced that it would withdraw from the project.

China did not bother about it and did not react one by one. The response from China to Australia was a resounding no. But as soon as Australia began issuing statements on national security in Hong Kong, China expressed its views, saying, "If you want to make China an enemy, China will be an enemy."

 

Although there have been a number of minor incidents since then, the most important set of events has been the creation of a competition to award Covid-19 vaccines to neighboring countries in China and Australia. Especially based in Papua New Guinea, the two countries began to offer vaccines to the competition, which was a good example of the fact that both countries are engaged in a war of conquest in the region.

Last year, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Arden called on Australia to take a more friendly approach with China. But there was no room in the Australian heart to give to China because Australia was American at heart. Now the two countries are in a position of blaming each other directly and most likely the end here will be bad.

If it goes bad, Asia will have to suffer the consequences. So if such flames go out quickly, it will be good for all of us in Asia.