Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye (right) and Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews attend a ceremony to mark the Australian state of Victoria's signing of a memorandum of understanding with China's economic planning authority on the Belt and Road initiative in 2018. Photo: Website of China's Embassy in Australia

Attacks on Australia's Victoria state officials for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) involvement by some Australian federal officials further unveiled their purpose to hijack China-Australia diplomatic and trade ties for their political ends and to curry favor with Washington, a Chinese political analyst said Thursday.  

The expert's comment came as Victorian State Premier Daniel Andrews was under fire for engaging the state with the China-proposed BRI, with Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warning "Victoria needs to explain why it is really the only state in the country that has entered into this agreement," according to media reports.

"Victoria is a rich state in Australia which has nurtured strong trade ties with China, and the Andrews government's decision on BRI shows that they understand what their people's real interests are", said Yu Lei, Professor at the Research Center for Pacific Island Countries of Liaocheng University.

In a report, Sydney Morning Herald said that the Andrews government used the China deal to target Liberal seats. "The Victorian Labor Party used the politics of the state's controversial Belt and Road agreement with China as an electoral weapon to help the Andrews government win votes in three seats with a high number of Chinese-Australians in its 2018 election victory," the report said.

"The criticism shows that Andrews critics are politicizing the issue and hijacking Vitoria's trade ties with China for their political interests," Yu noted.

On Wednesday, Andrews defended Victoria's strong relationship with China. "What that (relationship) means is our exports are up 62 per cent in the last five years, our visitors - tourists - are up 70 per cent in the last five years and our international student numbers are up 50 per cent from China in the last five years," he told reporters on Wednesday.

As the final BRI deal between China and Victoria is nearing, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Australia that his nation could "simply disconnect" from Australia if Victoria's trade deal with Beijing threatened its telecommunication security, the ABC News reported.

"It is pretty well-known that Australia's capital is in Canberra but its foreign policymakers are in Washington," Yu noted, adding that when it comes to political interests, some politicians would rather pursue their own political goals rather than caring for Australian people's real interests.