China has threatened Australia with economic consequences if they launch an investigation into Beijing’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak which has paralyzed several countries and claimed tens of thousands of lives.
According to The Hill, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye warned that Beijing could call for boycotts of Australian products and a halt of tourism to the land down under if an investigation were to be launched.
China’s threats have been dubbed “economic coercion” by Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
Payne reportedly said that “Australia has made a principled call for an independent review of the COVID-19 outbreak, an unprecedented global crisis with severe health, economic and social impacts.”
“We reject any suggestion that economic coercion is an appropriate response to a call for such an assessment, when what we need is global co-operation.”
Further calls for an investigation into the origin of the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 global pandemic are currently underway.
Earlier this month, China restricted academic research into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak, believed to have begun in Wuhan.
Despite the general consensus pointing at Wuhan, Chinese state reporters have deflected blame, singling out America for causing the current global pandemic.
A United Kingdom-based think tank, The Henry Jackson Society, estimated the economic damage caused by the global pandemic to be in the vicinity of $4 trillion. The damage to the UK alone was believed to be around $350 billion.
In Germany, a newspaper ignited an uproar for drawing up a phony invoice charging China for the economic damage as a direct result for the global pandemic.
Recently, a Rasmussen Poll found that 70% of polled registered voters wanted to see economic restrictions on China following their handling of the outbreak.
