Australian business leaders have been told the country is at the front of a new battleground with China. Speaking at the Australian National University’s Crawford Leadership Forum in Canberra on Sep. 6, federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Australia was “on the front line of new strategic competition and facing increasing pressure to compromise core values” from Beijing. “We have faced increasing pressure to compromise on our core values,” Frydenberg said. “And when we have stood firm, as we always will, we have been subjected to economic coercion.” Singling out the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the source of the bullying, Frydenberg noted this coercion had included Beijing’s attempt to coerce the government to address its fourteen “grievances” with Canberra covering everything from Australia’s foreign investment laws to the government’s willingness to call out cyber attacks. “It is no secret that China has recently sought to target Australia’s economy,” Frydenberg said. …