China, in its recent stint of flexing its hollow muscle, has decided to enforce an official embargo on the coal that it imports from Australia. In order to mimic the ban that India put on its poor-quality and malicious goods and services, China took a leaf off the Indian book and tried using the same strategy against Australia. But much to its surprise, this decision has emerged as an affliction for China itself.
Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coking coal which is used primarily for manufacturing steel and coal used for generating electricity in thermal power plants all over the world. On the behest of allegedly “failing environment standards” China put a ban on the import of Australian coal. The paper dragon’s highlight of environmental standards is immensely paradoxical and ironic as China has the world’s biggest Carbon footprint in the entire world. Take, for instance, the year 2018 when China emitted 10.06GT of Carbon Dioxide which is almost double that of the US and five times that of India.
The ban enacted in October was initially unofficial but brought down the Chinese import of coal from Australia which stood at 76% in March to about 26% as of now. The other competitors of similar quality coal are Canada and the US, which are clearly in no mood to help China at all.
China is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of steel and in the absence of Australian coal which acts as the industrial backbone for the Chinese steel industry; it surely is suffering the consequences. The biggest gainers because of this self-inflicted wound by China are its neighbour competitors in the form of India, Japan, and Korea. The three powers look ready to reap the benefits of the Australian coal which has become cheaper because of its fall in demand in the Chinese market.
Read more: China using nationalists and trolls to target foreign journalist in Australia
The relations between Canberra and Beijing went from bad to worst and it is mostly due to the wrongdoing of China and its malicious ambitions of world domination. Its deep desire to emulate the US has led it to be almost isolated in Geopolitics. Australia with recent confidence gained from Sino-US rivalry and the formalization of the Quad grouping managed to take China head-on just like India and other European nations.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had bluntly told the Chinese government to keep its nose outside the national policy formation of Australia when China had handed over a dossier of complaints against the steps Australia took against its bullying. China accused the Australian government of siding up with the US in its anti-China campaign. Australia termed it as gross diplomacy misconduct and stated that China is simply trying to hamper the sovereignty of Australia.
Australia put forth its security and economic interests in the form of being the first country in banning Huawei from its 5G rollout and objected to the WHO’s quick clean chit to China regarding the origins of the Coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Morrison had ordered an independent inquiry about the origin of the virus. The issue of the origin of the virus is a sore topic for China as both it and its citizens faced flank all over the world.
Canberra also condemned Beijing’s treatment of the Muslim Uyghur population in Xinjiang where people are forcefully kept in concentration camps where activities like brainwashing and torture on the pretext of de-radicalization are widely carried out. Along with this Australia called out China on the treatment of Revolutionaries in Hong Kong under the draconian national security law.
The blatant Chinese coercion through the means of its Wolf warriors has forced many of the previous sympathizers of China in Australia against it very quickly. A scholar of China’s global affairs notes that the democracies all over the world are beginning to stand against the Chinese bullying and its heavy wallet will be of no use soon.
Read more: ‘Back off mate,’ Morrison puts an end to China’s plans of colonizing Australia
Australia bravely put an end to the hooliganism of Chinese investing parties in the backdrop of reports of spying by the Chinese telecommunication companies. Further annoying China was the decision of Prime Minister Morrison to reach an agreement on bolstering defence ties with Japan, a move that was clearly indicative of countering Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region.
The relations of Beijing are on the downturn with almost every country of the world, its debt-trap diplomacy, land and water grabbing, interference in other countries’ affairs has led it to become a global pandemic of its own. Now the countries are coming out of their fears of the Chinese threat as it is high time for China to attain a peaceful way. It should realize that its ways of neo-imperialism and threatening others wouldn’t be fruitful anymore.
