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Ms Sawczak accused the government of going out"like a shag on a rock,little Australia,demanding an inquiry,insinuating blame,probably not a great foreign policy move."
"If the spooks were managing our economic interests,this country would go down the gurgler,"she said on Wednesday.
The comments at an event run by Chinese telco giant Huawei were immediately condemned by the chair of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security,Liberal MP Andrew Hastie. Mr Hastie said they denigrated Australia's security agencies while delivering"a low estimation of our country".
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham requested a phone call from his counterpart Zhong Shan on Tuesday but has yet to receive a reply. Australia and China have insisted publicly the trade dispute is separate to the inquiry push."The ball is very much in the court of the Chinese government,"said Senator Birmingham.
The impasse comes as Russia begins exporting hundreds of tonnes of beef into China after seven years of negotiation as it looks to compete with Australia in the world's largest market.
Beijing is also pushing new beef and resources deals with Brazil and barley trade with Canada and eastern Europe. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro recently spoke with China's President Xi Jinping after China supplied medical equipment. The country is one of Australia's top rivals in the critical iron ore,coal and LNG sectors.
The Chinese Communist Party used state media on Wednesday to make China's motivations for the Australian trade strike explicit,describing it as a"wake-up call".
"Against such a backdrop,growing concern over potential retaliatory measures from China seems totally justified given Australia's heavy economic reliance on China,"theGlobal Times said in an editorial.
Australia's ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos said China would not"throw away lightly"its trade relationship with Australia and there was"mutual benefit"to both countries.
Mr Sinodinos told 2GB radio Prime Minister Scott Morrison should be praised for his push for a global inquiry and Australia would not be taking a"backwards step".
Peter Jennings,executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,defended Ms Payne’s public call for an inquiry after business leaders and former foreign minister Julie Bishop called for more quiet diplomacy.
"I completely disagree with this idea that the way you deal with China is everything’s behind closed doors,say nothing publicly,"he said."Frankly we’ve been doing that for years and it has brought us absolutely nothing in terms of patience,or support in Beijing."
Lowy Institute polling estimated that up to 93 per cent of Australians think their country has handled COVID-19 very or fairly well so far,while only a third say China has handled the outbreak well.
A majority of Australians (68 per cent) now feel"less favourable towards China’s system of government"when thinking about China’s handling of the outbreak.
They hold mixed views about the impact of the crisis on China’s global power with around a third saying China will be"more powerful"than it was before the crisis,while a quarter say it will be less powerful.
This is much lower than the 72 per cent who said in 2009 that China would be more powerful coming out of the global financial crisis.
With Noel Towell
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