Business Maverick: Australia Passes Law That Can Scrap China Belt and Road Accords

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has new powers to veto or scrap agreements that state governments reach with foreign powers under laws that could stymie China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Australia and further inflame tensions between the trading partners.

passed by Parliament on Tuesday will give the foreign minister the ability to stop new and previously signed agreements between overseas governments and Australia’s eight states and territories, and with bodies such as local authorities and universities.

Relations hit a fresh low last week when a Chinese diplomat tweeted an image purporting to show an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. After Morrison called for an apology for the “repugnant” post, a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official dismissed the demand, questioning whether the Australian leader “lacks a sense of right and wrong.”

China’s cooperation with Victoria on BRI has brought benefits to both sides, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in August. “Australia should have an objective view of such cooperation and BRI, and not set up impediments for China-Australia cooperation.” The states and territories have at least 130 agreements across 30 nations that could be affected by the new law, according to Morrison. The law will establish a public register to provide transparency to the foreign minister’s decisions and states and territories will be given three months to deliver a stock-take of their existing agreements.

 

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