London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

"Won't Be Bullied": Australia To China After Scrapping Belt And Road Deal

"Won't Be Bullied": Australia To China After Scrapping Belt And Road Deal

The federal government pulled the deal with Victoria state late Wednesday in a move justified by the defence minister as necessary to prevent Australia hosting a giant infrastructure scheme "used for propaganda".

China on Thursday said Australia's sudden scrapping of a Belt and Road Initiative deal risked "serious harm" to relations and warned of retaliatory actions, but Canberra insisted it would not be bullied.

The federal government pulled the deal with Victoria state late Wednesday in a move justified by the defence minister as necessary to prevent Australia hosting a giant infrastructure scheme "used for propaganda".

Australia overruled the state's decision to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) -- the flagship of President Xi Jinping's geostrategic vision for the Asia-Pacific region -- by saying the agreement was inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy.

As relations nosedive -- following spats over the origins of the coronavirus and Canberra's blocking of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei -- Defence Minister Peter Dutton said Canberra was "worried" about local governments entering into such agreements with Beijing.

"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," he told local radio.

Dutton said the government's problem was not with the Chinese people but rather "the values or virtues or the outlook of the Chinese Communist Party".

Australia last year enacted new powers -- widely seen as targeting China -- that allow it to scrap any agreements between state authorities and foreign countries deemed to threaten the national interest.

Canberra's first target was the BRI, a vast network of investments that critics say is cover for Beijing to create geopolitical and financial leverage.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision "followed through" on his government's pledge to ensure Australia had a consistent foreign policy which strives for a "world that seeks a balance in favour of freedom".

The schism between Australia and its largest export market widened on Thursday as Beijing railed at the abrupt cancellation and warned it would damage trust between the two countries.

The move "has poisoned mutual trust... and seriously harms China-Australia relations", said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a briefing in Beijing.

"China reserves the right to take further action in response to this."

Earlier, Dutton said he would be "very disappointed" if China retaliated but retorted that Australia "won't 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.

"Fraying relations"


The BRI is the showpiece of Xi's vision for Asia, a lattice of ports, train tracks, economic zones and other infrastructure investments to tether the continent and beyond tighter into China's commercial orbit.

It was unclear if the Victoria state deal had "any projects that were in the pipeline or whether any investments had been pledged", Peter Cai, a specialist on Australia-China relations at the Lowy Institute, told AFP.

But Canberra's bold move is an indicator "of how fraying foreign relations or political instability can affect China's global infrastructure push", he said.

China has already slapped tariffs on more than a dozen Australian industries, including wine, barley and coal, in what many see as punishment for Canberra's increasingly assertive stance against its largest trading partner.

Australia infuriated China by calling for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, banning controversial telecoms giant Huawei from building Australia's 5G network and tightening foreign investment laws for corporations.

Other agreements between foreign powers and local governments are still under consideration, and Canberra could yet target the presence of Chinese government-backed Confucius Institutes at Australia's public universities.

Critics say the institutes, which have been the subject of controversy on some campuses, promote the Communist Party's self-serving version of Chinese culture and history.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×