China is Australia’s biggest export market, accounting for 27.5% of all goods and services exported ($85.9 billion AUD in 2015-2016). They resulted, after stalling the meeting with backroom discussions between China and Australia, in the hosts ejecting the Taiwan delegation. Since 2007, democratic Taiwan has taken part as an observer in these meetings, meant to decrease trade in conflict diamonds. Note that the meeting included mining executives, and their portion of the meeting was canceled when China and its African allies caused the second ruckus. Next time this happens, Australian voters who care about democracy and human rights should insist that China, not Taiwan, be shown the door.

Source: Forbes May 03, 2017 11:03 UTC