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Opinion | Australia-China ties are fast unravelling, but this could just be the starting point
- Journalists, academics and businesspeople alike are getting caught up in rising bilateral tensions, which threaten trade and academic exchanges
- With no thaw in sight, the economic and people-to-people ties that were once the glue holding the relationship together could now rapidly erode
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China-Australia relations are unravelling at a pace that could not have been contemplated just six months ago.
In recent days, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review’s Mike Smith were forced to flee China following intimidation by security agencies and the imposition of an exit ban, later lifted following negotiations led by Australian diplomats.
Chinese media outlets then alleged that Australia’s security agencies raided the properties of several Chinese journalists in June in connection with a foreign interference investigation involving New South Wales MP Shaoquett Moselmane.
With no sign of the political tensions between Australia and China easing, the big danger in all of this is the erosion of the economic and people-to-people ties that were once the glue holding the relationship together.

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Australia’s last two accredited journalists in mainland China evacuated as diplomatic ties worsen
Australia’s last two accredited journalists in mainland China evacuated as diplomatic ties worsen
If this goes, the events of recent days might only be a starting point in a broader bilateral decoupling that offers little prospect for the protection – let alone advancement – of Australia’s national interest.
Early optimism
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