Australia is edging towards a “partial economic decoupling” with China as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a new Australian parliamentary inquiry has heard. In a new inquiry set up in May to examine the vulnerability of Australia’s supply chains, defence and foreign affairs, experts argued there was a critical need for Australia to plan its own network of supply chains to shore up sovereign resilience with a need to drift away from China. The inquiry, findings of which could feed into state policies, followed an earlier debate in February when supply chains collapsed at the height of the outbreak in China. ... (full story)