China labels India, Australia, Japan supply chain plan as ‘artificial’ and ‘unfavourable’ to global economy
- Australia, India and Japan formally launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) on Tuesday after the plan was first discussed informally in July at the height of the pandemic
- China was never officially mentioned, but the reliance on it as source of critical medical supplies and finished goods during the outbreak was clearly a key motivation for the initiative
A move by Australia, India and Japan to establish an initiative to “strengthen supply chain resilience” in the region that is viewed as an effort to lessen dependence on China has been criticised by Beijing as an “artificial” programme that could upset the global economy.
The Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) was formally launched on Tuesday and will see new supply chains formed through joint business projects struck between the trio, who acknowledged “the [coronavirus] pandemic had revealed supply chain vulnerabilities globally and in the region”.
“The push to enact an artificial supply chain progamme will not be favourable to the stability of the global industrial supply chain, nor to the recovery of the global economy,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday.
“We hope the countries involved will continue to be part of a free-market economy and honour trading rules, while carrying out activities that are beneficial to mutual trust in order to achieve a sustainable, balanced and inclusive global economy.”
Zhao also said that, broadly speaking, the creation of supply chains take time and that no country should expect to create mature supply chains overnight.
On Tuesday, Australia, India and Japan agreed to move ahead with the initiative following trade disruptions and shocks caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
