China to Australia: stop treating us as a threat or we won’t pick up the phone

Exclusive: Beijing ministers won't speak to counterparts until Canberra discards cold war mentality', embassy says

Chinese government ministers won't start answering phone calls from their Australian counterparts unless Canberra stops treating Beijing as a strategic threat, a senior embassy official has warned.

China is urging the Morrison government to make a clear decision on whether it sees Beijing as a threat" or an opportunity", setting this up as a key precondition for resuming ministerial-level talks, which have been frozen since early this year.