US has 'enormous respect' for how Australia is standing up to China's 'economic coercion' - The Guardian

The US embassy’s chargé d’affaires, Michael Goldman, also expressed “enormous respect” for how Australia had stood up to China’s “economic coercion” over the past year, and said the Biden administration wanted to reassure Canberra and other allies “that we have their backs”.

It was vital, she said, for Australia to determine what role Australia wanted to take if it decided to join the US.

A top US commander publicly voiced concerns in March that China could potentially invade Taiwan within the next six years.

China’s foreign ministry accused the US of “exploiting the Taiwan question to exaggerate China’s military threat” and of “looking for excuses to justify the increase of the US military expenditure”.

Goldman reiterated comments by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and its Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell, registering Washington’s concerns about Beijing’s trade actions against Australia.

Published On: Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:31:00 GMT