26-05-2025
China Warns US Ally Over Plan To Take Back Strategic Port
China has issued a warning over Australia's plan to strip a Chinese firm of its contentious 99-year lease of a port.
Newsweek reached out to Landbridge Groups and the Chinese Foreign Ministry with emailed requests for comment outside of office hours.
Shandong Province–headquartered Landbridge Group acquired Darwin Port, the most northerly port in Australia, in 2015 on a 99-year lease.
The lease has raised national security concerns about foreign control of critical infrastructure by a company that-like all Chinese firms-is ultimately beholden to the government in Beijing. Critics have also cited the potential for espionage or the obstruction of expanding U.S. military operations in northern Australia in the event of a conflict with China.
The port became a political flashpoint in the lead-up to Australia's May 3 federal election.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his Labor government would return it to a private Australian operator. Opposition leader Peter Dutton went further, pledging to put the port under government control while compensating Landbridge if no operator could be found within six months.
Speaking with reporters last week, Chinese envoy to Australia Xiao Qian said Landbridge Group secured its lease through "an open and transparent bidding process, fully compliant with Australian laws and market principles," according to an embassy press statement released Sunday.
The company has made "significant" investments in port operations and management, growing its customer base and contributing to local development, Xiao said, arguing it would be "ethically questionable" to lease out an unprofitable asset and take it back after it was made profitable.
The diplomat urged Australia to "honor its binding commitment under the contract" and to ensure a "fair, transparent, and predictable business environment for Chinese enterprises operating in Australia."
Australia-China relations have been strained in recent years.
Thorny issues have included the Chinese military's increasingly assertive behavior and the suspended death sentence handed out to Australian writer Yang Hengjun for alleged espionage.
In 2020 China also imposed restrictions on Australian goods, including wine and barley, following Canberra's call for an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. These were later lifted in 2023 and in 2024 amid a relative diplomatic thaw.
Tensions with Beijing are driving Australia to strengthen its military posture, including plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines in partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom under the AUKUS security pact.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told local media in April: "What we are doing is we will enter into negotiations. That is what we've been doing informally, through potential buyers up to this point already, and if it reaches a point where the Commonwealth needs to directly intervene, then we'd be prepared to do that."
Terry O'Connor, non-executive director for Landbridge in Australia, previously told Newsweek: "Landbridge considers the [Darwin] Port a long-term investment that has grown significantly under Landbridge's ownership and has reported record operational performance this year. We expect this growth to continue in the future."
It remains to be seen how the Chinese government will handle the ownership of Darwin Port after Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison announced plans to sell two ports at either end of the Panama Canal to a BlackRock-led consortium following pressure from the Trump administration.
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