MNI BRIEF: China To Suspend Economic Dialogue With Australia

China will indefinitely suspend all activity under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue following Canberra's increasingly hawkish tone, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website.

Some Australian officials have launched a series of measures to disrupt normal exchange and cooperation between China and Australia out of Cold War mind set and ideological discrimination, the NDRC said.

Ties between the two countries have deteriorated with Canberra cancelling a pact between Victoria state and China's Belt and Road Initiative in April. More recently, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would act if national security concerns were raised about the lease of Darwin port by Chinese company Landbridge.