TRADE DISPUTE TURNS INTO A DIPLOMATIC BRAWL Increasing provocations, tariffs and economic muscle-flexing have relations between Australia and China in a deep freeze. How did it happen? Where will it lead?
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elations between Australia and its biggest trading partner, China, have rapidly deteriorated as Canberra has recently taken a more muscular approach to Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policies. On Anzac Day, when Australia and New Zealand honor their war dead, Peter Dutton, Australia’s newly appointed defense minister, told the Sydney Morning
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Herald that Australia was “already under attack” in the cyber domain and warned that Chinese bullying of Taiwan could lead to a regionwide conflict. Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo shockingly added that free nations were hearing the “drums of war” beating again. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a dramatic increase in military spending just before
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