A few days after the Australian Foreign Minister first called for an investigation of the nCoV origin, the Chinese ambassador to the country warned of a wave of boycotts.

"Perhaps the Chinese people will wonder why they should drink Australian wine or eat their beef," Chinese ambassador to Australia said in an interview with the Australian Financial Review late last month.

Less than a month later, Beijing's campaign to punish Canberra seemed to have been greatly boosted.

China is currently Australia's largest trading partner, with total trade between the two countries reaching more than US $ 214 billion in 2018 alone.

However, over the past decades, the country has been caught between a rising China, giving them great economic benefits, and a long-standing security relationship with the United States.

China-Australia relations began to crack in 2017, when Canberra introduced a new security law to prevent foreign interference in domestic politics.

Amid intense tensions, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne on April 19 called for an independent international investigation into the origin of nCoV.

According to CNN commentator Ben Westcott, the topic of nCoV origins has become more and more politicized in recent months, as both Washington and Beijing have tried to use it to divert attention from economic issues.

The Australian government has called ambassador Chan and accused his comments of "economic oppression".

Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the Chinese side confirmed that stopping the import of beef and imposing barley on rice were not related to Australia's call to investigate the origin of nCoV.

Richard McGregor, senior expert at Australia's Lowy Research Institute, said Beijing is likely to want to use Canberra to send messages to the world.

There is growing discussion within Australia as to whether or not they are necessarily tougher with China.

However, former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said that Canberra is risking economic relations with Beijing to strengthen security relations with Washington.

According to the former official, the motivation for Australia to act as America's "deputy" came from the false belief that closer ties with Washington would help protect Canberra from Beijing's aggressive behavior.

"A crazy view in Canberra says that if Beijing strikes us, our job is to suffer responsibly, to show ourselves as voluntary allies to the United States and to obey orders.

Australia's agricultural exports have been under attack as the Chinese government is trying to import billions of dollars of US agricultural products, as part of a US-China trade agreement in the first phase.

There are still many areas of trade unaffected by the tensions, including the import of billions of dollars of iron ore from Australia, a commodity that China desperately needs to carry out infrastructure projects.

Carr called for the expansion of foreign policy between Australia and China to mend bilateral relations.

"Based on all my experience, China will try to bully you as much as possible. I feel sorry for the barley farmers, but at least we don't collapse and get our investigation.

McGregor said that regardless of Australia's final decision, China still needs to be careful about its level of accusation, especially at a time when many European and Asian countries are re-evaluating their relations with

"If they see China punishing a country just for giving a normal view of the necessity of the Covid-19 investigation, many people will wonder how they should regulate relations with China," he said.