Time Australia kicked China right where it hurts

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Let’s call this what it is. War by other means. At SCMP:

China has banned imports of Australian timber from Queensland and suspended barley imports from a second grain exporter, while Chinese importers are also bracing for a new round of bans on copper ore and copper concentrate as well as sugar this week in the latest trade escalations between Beijing and Canberra.

The new bans occurred over the weekend as clearance of Australian rock lobster shipments was also delayed in Shanghai due to increased import inspections.

On Friday, the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) issued a warning notice to exporters saying that it had found a pest, the bark beetle Ips grandicollis, in imported log timber from Queensland and has banned all log exports from the Australian state.

A China foreign ministry spokesman confirmed on Monday that Chinese authorities have repeatedly found “biohazards” in imports of Australian timber.

China’s customs agency also said it had found contamination in barley shipments from Australian grain exporter Emerald Grain and had ceased imports from the company from Friday. The contamination was from bromus rigidus, a grasslike weed.

Major exporter Emerald Grain collects grain from around 12,000 grower families in New South Wales and Victoria and exports grain out of 17 grain terminals.

The bans on copper ore and copper concentrate, as well as sugar, are expected to be introduced this week, according to multiple trade sources in China.

Good. Let’s get this over with. China is neither ally, friend nor trading partner. It is an ideological and political enemy that we have helped build for too long who is determined to impose its own system of government upon the Australian democracy using any and all means necessary.

That enemy is happy to play games with our industries, to undermine and destroy our democracy, to buy and manipulate our politics, to bully and coerce our citizens, to lie about and spread its pandemics, to steal our PPE as we fall ill, to abuse our institutions with propaganda and to daily insult every Australian.

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Let’s not beat around the bush any longer. It’s time to impose an export counter-tariff on iron ore. Pick any number you like but it should be above 50%. The proceeds can be channeled directly into a defense build-out targeting China and tax cuts for non-China exporters.

As well, it’s time to put Australian business on a war footing. Nobody who trades with China should expect it to continue. Explicit warnings are necessary.

None of this is fatal to our prosperity. We were fine before China and will be fine after it. China is utterly reliant upon our iron ore and all other commodities will go elsewhere over time as we fill the supply holes created by China shifting its demand. It’ll require an adjustment that we can handle without too much disruption. It is we that hold the whip hand not commodity-short China.

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No self-respecting nation can cop this kind of crap. The Australian people are completely jack of the CCP and it’s time to put their will into action:

Peter Hartcher has some great advice from the US for us:

…a former adviser to Barack Obama and Joe Biden…Danny Russel, who was a top official on China policy in the White House and the State Department in the last Democrat administration…says

Should he win, Biden would engage with China on three levels, Russel posits. One would be deterring Beijing’s aggression where it threatens the US or its allies. As examples, he cites the penetration of sensitive scientific research and cyberattack. Another level would be on issues that could be managed, such as dealing with China’s law enforcement or its supply of the opiate fentanyl.

A third level would be co-operation where the two powers have common interests. Climate change is the prime example.

…”Australia will find the US under Joe Biden to be more attentive, consistent, reasonable, strategic and competent – what a change.”

And a Biden administration would mean “an end to every man for himself – the US can help foster a sense of collective purpose” in the face of China’s “divide and conquer” approach, Russel says.

“I’m not saying it would be a NATO Article 5 invocation” of armed intervention “over Australian lobster exports to China” – a reference to Beijing’s policy of economic coercion against Australia. But “Biden would not be cowed by those kind of tactics and two can play that game – if they’re going to use these kind of tactics, it’s going to come at a cost.”

His free advice to the Morrison government: “If inflicting pain on Australia works and the Chinese get a kowtow and abject apology, it guarantees that you’ll see a lot more of this behaviour from them.”

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Keep calm and goodbye China.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.