China is restricting the access of Australian coking coal to its ports, sending the Australian dollar lower on Thursday and prompting Canberra to launch a diplomatic mission to discover the cause.
While China said the import controls on the steelmaking ingredient were part of measures to cut pollution, there were concerns it was linked to political tensions between the two countries, such as Canberra’s ban on Chinese telecoms company Huawei from operating 5G networks last year.
“China is carrying out risk monitoring and analysis on the quality and safety of imported coal . . . in order to protect the environment,” said the foreign ministry in response to a question on whether the restrictions were related to bilateral tensions.
您已阅读14%（735字），剩余86%（4426字）包含更多重要信息，订阅以继续探索完整内容，并享受更多专属服务。