Trade plan

'Strategic' risks to Australia from China trade plan

The ABC has confirmed the heads of the immigration and defence departments were among those opposed to Beijing's ambitious 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, firmly advising the Turnbull Government earlier this year not to join it.

Several government sources said the Chinese plan also provoked a schism inside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with trade bureaucrats broadly in favour of joining while the diplomatic corps was reticent.