Australia risks China's wrath and insists it will take back major port it has leased for 99 years
Aerial photo of the financial district in the city of Darwin, with the harbor area visible in the distance, PHOTO: William West / AFP / Profimedia Images
Australia has pledged to bring back under its control a key northern port concessioned for 99 years to a Chinese company, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday, after Beijing's envoy to Canberra warned of possible trade retaliation.
The government of the Northern Territory, one of Australia's federal regions, in 2015 leased the Port of Darwin to the Chinese company Landbridge for 506 million Australian dollars ($353 million at today's exchange rate), a decision criticized by the United States. The amount was 25 times higher than the profit made by the port in the previous two years.
The award of the contract by tender came just a few years after the United States deployed the first contingent of a rotating group of US Marines to Darwin. The US and Australia are currently expanding air bases in northern Australia to accommodate US bombers.
On an official visit to East Timor on Wednesday, Albanese said his government had made it clear it wanted the port to return to Australian control.
“We are determined to make sure that port is back in Australian hands because that is in our national interest,” he stressed.
The port's owner, subsidiary Landbridge Australia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in November that the port was in a strong financial position.
China's warnings over Australian PM's remarks
Xiao Qian, China's ambassador to Canberra, told reporters at an annual press conference on Wednesday that Beijing would “take measures to protect the interests of the Chinese company” if it is forced to give up the concession.
“If Landbridge were forced to leave that port, I think it could also affect substantial investment, cooperation and trade between Chinese companies and that part of Australia,” Xiao was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
It is not the first time that Xiao criticizes the electoral promise made last year by the Albanians to return to local ownership the northern port with a strategic position.
“China would like to reiterate that the relevant Chinese enterprise obtained the Darwin Port concession through market mechanisms,” Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, also said at a regular press conference in Beijing.
“Their legitimate rights and interests should be fully protected,” he stressed.
