China continues to threaten Australia because it ‘thinks it has a stranglehold over us'

LNP MP George Christensen has called for the Chinese Ambassador to Australia to front a government inquiry as China readies itself to impose harsh taxes on the Australian barley industry.

China has given the nation’s barley producers ten days before potentially imposing close to an 80 per cent tax on its barley imports.

This comes as an ongoing committee into the need for diversification in Australia’s trade relationships – chaired by Mr Christensen – is preparing to call on the ambassador to give testimony.

Mr Christensen told Sky News host Paul Murray more than a third of Australia’s trade dollars is linked to China highlighting how “we’ve put too many eggs in the one basket, and that’s why they have the upper hand”.

“(China) is a country which continues to use this sort of bullying, coercive, threatening strategy over and over again”.

“It’s just a harmful relationship”.

The ambassador is widely believed to employ diplomatic immunity to prevent him from appearing, but Mr Christensen says “that will be saying something in itself if they exercise that diplomatic immunity”.

“They’re behaving this way towards us right now because they think they’ve got a strangle-hold over us already”.

Image: Getty

Видео China continues to threaten Australia because it ‘thinks it has a stranglehold over us' канала Sky News Australia