The Chinese government “for an indefinite period” is terminating activities in the framework of the bilateral strategic economic dialogue.
“Recently, some Australian Commonwealth government officials have taken a series of measures to disrupt normal exchanges and cooperation between China and Australia due to Cold War thinking and ideological discrimination”, – the China National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement.
The commission’s statement does not say exactly which measures led to retaliatory actions. But Beijing’s decision has already affected the Australian dollar, which fell from 0.7747 to 0.7701 per US dollar.
Relations between the countries have remained strained since 2018. Australia then became the first country to publicly ban Chinese tech giant Huawei from accessing its 5G network. Australia also called for an independent investigation into the origins of the new coronavirus last year.
Australian Commerce Secretary Dan Tehan said the commission’s decision was “disappointing” as the economic dialogue was “an important forum for Australia and China to work through issues related to our economic partnership”.