An article in today’s Global Times newspaper , one of China’s more bombastic nationalist tabloids, provides a glimpse into how determined Chinese officials are to “decouple” their trade with Australia, especially in the hugely valuable iron sector. Sino-Australian relations deteriorated sharply in 2020 over disputes related to the origin of COVID-19, the South China Sea, and Huawei. Now, Beijing appears determined to use Australia’s dependence on the Chinese market as a weapon to retaliate against Canberra for what it sees are malign attacks. To that end, a Chinese team in Zambia installed the NEUH-60, a piece of equipment that will reportedly enhance Zambian iron ore to a similar level of quality as Australian ore. It’s clear from the quotes used in the Global Times story that the researchers involved in the project are clear about the objective: “Now China is enhancing the development of African iron mines, when the necessary bedrock infrastr...
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