Australia Scraps State’s Belt And Road Deal With China, Beijing Rails At ‘Provocative’ Move

Australia said Wednesday it would revoke a state government’s deal to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative because it was inconsistent with the nation’s foreign policy — prompting an angry response from Beijing.

Canberra last year introduced new laws widely seen as targeting China that allow it to scrap any agreements between state authorities and foreign countries deemed to threaten the national interest.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Wednesday the federal government would override the Victorian state government’s decision to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a vast network of investments that critics say is cover for Beijing creating geopolitical and financial leverage.

The move prompted the Chinese embassy in Australia to rail at what it called the “unreasonable and provocative” move, as relations between the two countries continue to freefall.

Payne said two documents signed in 2018 and 2019 respectively — a memorandum of understanding and framework agreement — were among four she would tear up under the new powers.

“I consider these four arrangements to be inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations,” she said in a statement.

The announcement comes at a time of deteriorating relations between Beijing and Canberra, with the two governments at loggerheads over trade and competing for influence in the Pacific.

The BRI is the flagship of President Xi Jinping’s geostrategic vision for the Asia-Pacific region, and damage to its progress is likely to further rupture relations between the two countries.