Beijing’s Coercion Must Stop Before Relations Can Resume: Australian Foreign Minsters

Beijing’s Coercion Must Stop Before Relations Can Resume: Australian Foreign Minsters
File photo of an image on a placard in Melbourne, Australia, to call for end to Chinese Communist Party militarisation of South China Sea on Sept. 30, 2018. Leigh Smith/Facebook
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Australia’s incumbent and shadow Foreign Ministers Marise Payne and Penny Wong have said Beijing must put a halt to its campaign of coercion against the country before diplomatic relations can resume.

Speaking at the Foreign Affairs Debate in the lead up to the federal election on May 21, Payne and Wong presented a united front when asked how their parties would “de-escalate” Australia’s diplomatic relationship with China. Both declared that any chance of diplomatic ties thawing would only occur if the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) hostile actions—including an ongoing trade war—were stopped.

Victoria Kelly-Clark
Author
Victoria Kelly-Clark is an Australian based reporter who focuses on national politics and the geopolitical environment in the Asia-pacific region, the Middle East and Central Asia.
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