In recent years, Sino-Australian relations have been lingering in the trough, Australia's domestic industry is facing an unprecedented crisis, and "decoupling" from China, the world's most important economy, is unimaginable for any country.
According to foreign media Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, two small Chinese companies have been "instructed" by Chinese officials to prepare to suspend imports of liquefied natural gas from Australia. After learning the news, the Australian media reposted the news a lot, and after iron ore, coal and wine, natural gas became another area of China's sanctions against Australia, the Australian media commented.
It can be seen from the report that other natural gas export plans to China have not been affected, which shows that the scope of China's policy is relatively limited. The fact is that so far, no relevant news has been disseminated in China's economic departments and authoritative media, and the authenticity of foreign media reports needs to be verified. To confirm whether this news is true, we still need to wait for the official Chinese answer, but in any case, the breakdown of Sino-Australian relations is a certainty, especially after the NDRC announced the indefinite suspension of the Sino-Australian Strategic Economic Dialogue a few days ago. Official economic and trade relations between the two countries have come to a standstill.
Specifically in the field of natural gas, it is another very important part of Sino-Australian economic and trade. Although it does not attract the attention of the outside world like iron ore and coal before, its importance cannot be ignored. According to Booming New Energy Finance, Australia is the world's largest supplier of LNG, and more than 40% of China's LNG imports come from Australia. Even in 2020, when China-Australia relations are in crisis, China still imports 29 million tons of LNG from Australia, which is of positive significance for both sides.
According to reports, Australia gained 13 billion Australian dollars (about 10 billion U.S. dollars) through the export of LNG to China last year. With China, the largest and most stable customer, Australia can be said to have made a lot of money. At a time when Sino-Australian relations continue to be tense, China has begun to look for new cooperation partners around the world, and its dependence on natural gas in Australia will gradually decrease in the future.
In addition to this rumor, the long-term cooperative relationship between China and Australia in liquefied natural gas has already cracked after the tension between the two countries. .
In the first two months, Woodside, Australia's largest oil and gas exporter, told the media that the company had previously conducted relevant transactional negotiations with Chinese companies, and planned to spend 16 billion Australian dollars (about 80 billion yuan) The company completed the acquisition of the company's subordinate shares and business at a price. When the negotiation was about to reach a consensus, due to the influence of the economic relationship between the two countries, this plan was ultimately in vain.
Some Australian business people believe that the suspension of the import of liquefied natural gas from Australia by two Chinese companies is a series of activities adopted by the Chinese side following the suspension of the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue mechanism. Although from the current point of view, the business of these two companies has a limited impact on the overall business, this undoubtedly sends an obvious message to the outside world, that is, China-Australia economic and trade relations have not yet reached the most precarious level. The economic and industrial crisis will be staged one after another in Australia.
After the suspension of the Strategic Economic Dialogue, some people in Australia are still lucky and naively believe that the economic and trade relations between the two sides will have limited economic impact on Australia. However, they were all overwhelmed, and they complained that the government did not seriously examine the relationship with China.
International politics has always been closely linked with the international economy. At the beginning of the destruction of relations with China, all relevant circles in Australia should make it clear that any suppression of China's politics will burn the economic and trade war on itself. In addition, this economic impact not only exists in iron ore, coal and wine, but also affects other aspects.
In addition, based on their own ideology, some people in the Australian government have launched many actions in the past two years that affect the normal development of bilateral relations. For example, the Morrison government announced that it would tear up the “Belt and Road” agreement that it had joined before, and also ordered the security department. Reviewing the plans of Chinese companies to lease the Darwin port , if one or two incidents may be accidental, then even ordinary people can see the motives of the Australian officials.
Australia’s attitude towards China is not monolithic . An Australian lawyer employed by a Chinese company told The Australian Financial Review, “The faucet was not only turned off, but completely removed.” Australian officials This series of actions will seriously damage the basis of cooperation between the two sides.
