Despite a new year and a new president in Washington, China’s economic punishment against Australia continues. More than four years since the early signs of politically motivated trade restrictions first appeared, this economic statecraft saw a reduction of approximately AU$3 billion worth of Australian exports to China in 2020.¹ Impacting a wide range of industries, most notably coal, wine, barley, and cotton, there are so far no indicators that China is planning to significantly ease these trade restrictions.² Ratcheted up dramatically in 2020, these punitive measures come on the back of a precipitous and sustained downward trajectory of diplomatic and political relations. Australia has been on the receiving end of increasingly strident and threatening diplomatic messaging, high-profile and likely politically motivated targeting of Australian citizens in China, a decline in leader- and ministerial-level engagement, and a winding back of access to Chinese officials at the working level.³

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