I thought so, too. But it seems it is more the other way around: Australia was doing fine (can sell its stuff elsewhere), but China needs the imports:

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3151549/c...

It's complicated. By proportion of trade, China is more important to Australia than Australia is to China.

But that only speaks to the total values, not substitutability or importance.

Given that most of what China imports from Australia are raw materials, and China is still a primarily manufacturing and construction economy (in dollar terms), it seems like a shortsighted move.

Especially since Australia generally has good relationships with the West (especially the UK and US) due to shared culture.

The proper time to try to bully Australia into line would have been 20 years from now, once China's economy has fully developed and Belt and Road has had time to play out.

But I imagine the Chinese were looking at Australia through the optics of (1) what the US was doing & (2) how a Chinese reaction to Australia's stubbornness would be read by other, smaller SE Asian countries.