In one of the most incomprehensible decisions in modern Australian history, the Port of Darwin was leased to a Chinese company in 2015 by the Northern Territory government. Despite the NT government claiming that the Defence Department had not raised any red flags, everyone else, from maritime unions to the Obama administration, expressed alarm at handing over such a strategic asset to a Chinese entity.
But the Obama administration wasn’t exactly in a position to throw stones, as it signed a similar lease for one of the US’s biggest container ports in 2012.
Now the Trump administration has reversed that strategically crazy decision, in a move that should point the way for Australia to do likewise.
The Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security has forced China’s state-owned Cosco to sell the Port of Long Beach over security concerns.
China’s Cosco Shipping Holdings, which bought out its 75 percent–owned Hong Kong–based Orient Overseas International (OOCL), was forced to sell its Port of Long Beach Container Terminal ownership to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners for $1.78 billion.
Obama was not exactly noted for his strategic nous. He was, after all, the candidate who famously sniggered at Mitt Romney’s worries about the downgrading of America’s blue-water fleet. Fast forward a few years to China’s aggressive Pacific expansion…
One of the first major actions of the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security in March 2017 was issuing a “Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.” national security hold on Cosco’s acquisition of a former U.S. Navy port facility […]
As part of its efforts to gain asset dominance, China has directed its state-owned companies to exclusively buy products and services from other Chinese state-owned enterprises. As a result, China International Marine Containers Group has become the world’s largest maker of shipping containers and Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries has gained a 70 percent international market share for port cranes, and now exports to 300 ports in 100 countries.
americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/trump_administration_forces_china_to_sell_the_port_of_long_beach
Unfortunately, this claw-back doesn’t go far enough: the Chinese will still pocket more than a billion while hanging on to their control for just two decades instead of four. But, it’s a start – and it should be a roadmap for the Australian government.
South Australian backbencher Nick Champion is leading the charge to “nationalise” the strategic northern access point, but the ABC has spoken to others across the political divide who share his concerns […]
At top-level talks in Sydney over the weekend, the Australian Government again joined the United States in expressing alarm over reports China is moving to establish a new military base in a Cambodian port.
abc.net.au/news/2019-08-05/push-to-nationalise-darwin-port
Then they probably shouldn’t have handed over Australia’s most strategic port.