Beijing’s diplomatic outpost in Canberra has blasted a Liberal backbench senator for “Cold War” thinking, in a strongly-worded response to a newspaper column written by the senator.

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the former minister for the Pacific who quit to sit on the backbench after backing Peter Dutton in the Liberal leadership crisis, had accused China of deliberately trapping small Pacific nations in debt by lending them money for major infrastructure.

AAP

Writing in the Australian newspaper, the senator said the practice was “less confrontational” than the violence that came to the Pacific region during World War II but was “just as insidious”.

In response, the Chinese embassy said the comments were “blatant slander against China”.

“The ridiculous and absurd allegation, filled with Cold War mentality, reflected the senator’s prejudice, arrogance and ignorance,” the embassy spokesman said.

“Over the years, China has provided assistance to relevant island countries within its capacity and with no political strings attached, based on fully respecting the will of the Pacific Island countries’ governments and people and taking into full account of their development needs.”

The stoush is not the first time the conservative Liberal has come into conflict with Beijing.

In January, Senator Fierravanti-Wells accused China of building “roads that go nowhere” and “useless buildings” in the Pacific, drawing another rebuke.