May 28, 2025, 07:48
Despite criticisms, the Australian government is working to end Chinese firm Landbridge Group's control over Darwin Port, insisting the port needed to be "in Australian hands."
While framed by Canberra as a necessary step to safeguard national interests, this decision is more politically motivated than grounded in sound economic or legal principles. It is ethically questionable, economically counterproductive and damaging to the bilateral relationship between China and Australia.
The 99-year lease of Darwin Port to Landbridge Group was secured in 2015 through an open and transparent bidding process approved by the Northern Territory government. The lease was not a covert or suspicious transaction but a legitimate commercial agreement that complied with Australian laws and procedures.
Landbridge has since made substantial investments in maintaining and expanding the port's capabilities, contributing positively to the local economy and employment.
"Such an enterprise and project deserves encouragement, not punishment. It is ethically questionable to lease the port when it was unprofitable and then seek to reclaim it once it becomes profitable," China's ambassador to Canberra, Xiao Qian, denounced Australia's decision on the port.
The Australian government's justification for reclaiming the port centers on national security concerns, citing the port's strategic location as a northern gateway and a base for U.S. Marines. However, this narrative overlooks the fact that the port has operated under Chinese management for nearly a decade without reported security breaches or operational issues.
The port's importance to Australia's economy and security is undeniable, but the assumption that Chinese ownership inherently threatens these interests is a politically charged assertion rather than an evidence-based conclusion.
This shift in framing – from economic opportunity to national security threat – reflects broader geopolitical tensions. The decision to forcibly reclaim the port is apparently influenced more by external pressures, particularly from the United States and domestic political considerations.
Indeed, when it was signed, Washington expressed dissatisfaction about the original lease in 2015. In recent years, the United States has steadily escalated its military presence in Darwin, maintaining a permanent and rotating deployment of marine forces, while upgrading and expanding military bases.
For Washington, the aim is to advance its military posture in northern Australia and transform the region into a strategic frontline of the Indo-Pacific.
Forcibly terminating a 99-year lease agreement poses significant legal and financial risks for Australia. It is worth noting that Landbridge paid A$506 million ($328 million) for the lease and may seek compensation if the contract is broken prematurely. The company has indicated openness to offers around A$1 billion ($650 million), reflecting the port's increased value.
Such a forced buyback would not only be costly but could also damage Australia's reputation as a reliable destination for foreign investment. The principle of honoring contracts is a cornerstone of international business and diplomacy. Undermining this principle raises the risks of creating a climate of uncertainty that deters future foreign investment in Australia.
The move could set a dangerous precedent for international business dealings in Australia. If contracts can be overturned due to shifting political winds, foreign investors will face heightened risks, reducing foreign direct investment and economic isolation. This is particularly detrimental given China's role as Australia's key economic partner.
Worse still, once the port is partially or fully converted for military purposes, the local economy will be subordinated to military strategy. Military exercises, fleet resupply and strategic stockpiling will displace routine port operations and logistics. As a result, local industries and livelihoods will face significant disruption.
Instead of politicizing the project, the Australian government needs to view it objectively. As comprehensive strategic partners, China and Australia should foster mutual trust, as Xiao stressed, as mutually beneficial cooperation aligns with shared interests. Politicizing economic agreements is not in the interest of Australia in the long run. (Source: CGTN)
Don't need to get angry.
In every challenge there is a silver lining.
Sell back to Australia for 3 times the original entry cost + loss of future profits for 20 years. Then prepare an advertising campaign on Australia's untrustworthiness.
Impose an embargo all ships sailing from Darwin to China. If Australia wants to raise prices following this embargo, then ask them not to sell. Of course Australia may want a trade war or a war of some kind with China. So be prepared.
Look for another port only after getting the money. Get the Australian state to fund the new port.
Later if Australia government asks China to take back the Darwin port, then ask the Australian government to pay for the reconstruction and renewal costs plus 10 years income tax exemption. China should not come out with a single RMB to take back this port since don't know when the Australian government will renege on their offer again.
If you wanted a reason to be pessimistic about the future of Western democracies — besides the low birth rates, internal strife and rising competing powers — you could do a lot worse than look at two fiscal rows, one in Westminster and one in Washington. Between them, a hidden failure mode in democracy has been put on full display.
In Britain, Sir Keir Starmer is on the ropes after being forced into an about-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments, with Left-wing MPs demanding an end to the child benefit cap while opposing cuts to disability benefits. Meanwhile, the IMF is bluntly stating that Britain has no more room to borrow within its fiscal rules, squeezing the PM and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, from the other direction.
In the US, meanwhile, Elon Musk is criticising Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and its trillions in tax cuts. Having made a claimed $175bn (£130bn) in savings through the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), the tech billionaire is now watching in horror as the president sets up a $2.3 trillion expansion in America’s deficit over the next decade.
- If even Elon can’t slash spending, Western economies are doomed
David Stockman points out the absurdity of the CBO's rosy projections denying the Great Satan quackonomy is about to implode: "On the Gross Fiscal Negligence of the Washington GOP".
Only MASSIVE corruption could result in such disastrous s**t-show quackonomies. And the banksters do it deliberately to keep the hold over the debt-slaves. Or as Paul Volcker said, he'd never seen anything so intractable.
No doubt Poodleville's Office of Budgetary Rubberstamping is designed to mimic it along with BS Bernanke lecturing the Bank of Poodleville on how to present the lies.
So after five centuries of the poodle empire of plundering including 350 years of enslaving Africans, they started both World Wars to impose jew-confetti on the planet.
Unable to compete or even create any wealth at all, the Great Satan and poodle haven't had a trade surplus since 1975 and 1982, respectively. They imposed the Jim Crow era, the Chinese Exclusion Act, head-taxes on Chinese and now the China Initiative, the Wolf Amendment and an illegal tariff war as well.
Outright terrorist acts by these useless, genocidal parasites include blowing up the Nordstream pipelines and committing genocide in Gaza to thieve the off-shore gas.
This follows on from extorting cash out of ZTE, BNP Paribas, Volkswagen and Toyota to name but a few and thieving the FX reserves of Russia and Afghanistan, the gold from Venezuela, Libya and Ukraine and the oil from Venezuela and Syria. They've also been robbing their own sheeple on the highways and peddling imaginary buttcoins.
Already, the Great Satan and poodle are idiocracies:
When the English are worse at English than the Chinese, you know you’re in trouble.
- SATs aren't damaging kids — low expectations are
And both admit their IQs continue to collapse under "jewish socialism", which is just a Jim Crow pig with lipstick and survival of the krappiest, or as one amerikan article recently pointed out, when you can parasite using jew-confetti, why would you bother doing an honest day's work?
So just as the pothead war criminal smeared other nations as being "fantastically corrupt" and Ayn Rand smeared the East by claiming that without the West there was no culture, they cover this up using a silhouette to smear, suggesting but not stating that it's the East which has declining IQs:
A few years ago a guest on RT.com from Poodleville complained that everyone was "sick to the back teeth" of the constant lies. Similarly, in what convicted war criminal, Tony Blair, called, "rip-off Britain", you spend all your time trying to stop them thieving off you. They even started both World Wars to impose jew-confetti on the planet, so even the so-called "money" is fraudulent "worthless paper" which constantly devalues. You have to become an expert on everything you spend money on.
AND just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, they're now so bankrupt, insolvent and desperate that they're peddling a new "worthless paper" buttcoin which are imaginary coins. They robbing the sheeple in every way they can. As well as shrinkflation there's widespread krapflation. I have four washing up liquid bottles because I can't find one that's any good. They're now "surfactants" rather than detergents that actually dissolve any grease.
All they ever do is turn everything to krap. They spent 5 centuries plundering the planet, illegally infesting all but two nations and enslaving Africans for 350 years before reneging on the "forty acres (thieved off the native Americans in violation of written land-treaties) and a mule". Then they ripped off the freed slaves again with the sharecropper scam.
AND THEY NEVER STOP PARASITING!!!!!!!!
An Englishman's word is his bond and the poodle bonds aren't worth the paper they're printed on either.
Perfidious Albion has reneged on EVERY treaty it possibly could.
I've worked with them, or at least tried to. They're completely hapless clowns that LITERALLY started eating one another the "first time the mail-boat was a day late". Or as Douglas Adams said, they're "slug-brained", "know-nothing f***wits" and "useless bloody loonies". They're always desperate and always committing crime. They're like Steve Martin's character in My Blue Heaven, Vincent "Vinnie" Antonelli, always commiting crime and using dirty tricks.
An excellent article regarding Darwin's breach of contract.
However, Canberra's ability to govern this god given continent is unable with the last 40 years of Canberra's mismanagement.
The people themselves are being told that they must kneel to Uncle Sam..
Sad but reality, isn't it...
Community login
Add a comment