CHINA-AUSTRALIA: BEIJING PUTS FREEZE ON TIES WITH AUSTRALIA

The Australian media reports that China is putting Australia into a diplomatic deep freeze, stalling on ministerial visits, deferring a trip by its top diplomat and putting off a broad range of lower-level ­exchanges to pressure Malcolm Turnbull over the new foreign ­interference laws and naval challenges to disputed Chinese claims in the South China Sea. They said critical reports about Australia and the Prime Minister have spiked in China. China has made it difficult for lower-level ­exchange programs, education visits and, according to government sources, deferred a trip by Foreign Affairs departmental secretary Frances Adamson, Australia’s highest-ranking diplomat and a former ambassador to Beijing. Earlier consideration of a March trip for Mr Turnbull to ­Beijing — he has already visited Tokyo and Washington this year — has not been followed up and a scheduled Chinese trip for Julie Bishop will not be decided until after the NPC this month. The Chinese government has also deferred at least one scheduled trip from a Chinese minister. The Australian reported last week that university leaders were concerned about Chinese government attempts to dissuade ­students from coming to Australia to study.





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