Our Chinese influences
Where does the Territory fit into the plans of the superpower?
THE Radioatcite campaign went deeper than the WeChat post. Australian wine giant, Treasury Wine Estates, found in April it was hit with a suite of “new and additional verification requirements” that applied only to Australian-origin wine, and caused a slowdown in moving stock off Chinese ports.
Blue Lake Diary Group, a Chinese-owned Australian company producing baby formula from dried milk in Millicent, South Australia, has found its product – though desperately sought in China, ass ugly supermarket scenes in n Australia have showed – simi--larly waylaid while awaiting approval from China’s food and drug administration.
Sarah Barnett, who works as a quality supervisor for Blue Lake, says Australia-China politics is hurting them directly.
A 900g container of their baby formula sells for $24 in Australia, but $75 in China. a. They can’t bust through to this s huge market on China’s pre--text of rigorous product testing – but Barnett believes China is punishing them as an Austra--lian-based company.
“Australia is a follower of America and that has impac--ted the Chinese Government’s view of Australia,” says Barnett. “We have suffered from this as well. The problem is how they see Australia’s attitude to China.”
Blue Lake has another problem: it’s operations manager, Ryan Zhang, came here on a 457 visa, buying an old potato factory to start his baby powder packaging plant. Now, the 457 is being replaced by the new Temporary Skill Shortage visa, which requires him to take an English test. He will not pass that test.
After investing $15m, employing 23 locals and planning a $50m upgrade, Zhang says he is now looking to take the plant to New Zealand.
What have we done to offend? Objected to China’s militarisation of the South China Sea; stressed the value of our alliance with Japan; legislated against foreign (read: Chinese) interference in our political affairs and critical infrastructure.
The suggestion that Chinese companies are not fit to supply telecommunications systems, for fear they will load the wires with spyware, has caused special insult. It has re- sponded with trade inter inter- f ference that, h so f far, j just f falls ll s short of breaching the terms of the China-Australia Free e Trade Agreement.
Chairman Xi Jinping is no stay- at- home dad: his huge One Belt, One Road pro- gram seeks to link commerce to China by creating a modern Silk Route stretching west from China to Europe, e, down through Africa and d across to Indonesia.
Australia is not officially on the OBOR map, though some argue we already are – especially after the Darwin Port was leased to Landbridge, for 99 years, infuriating the US which rotates rapid-response Marines force out of Darwin.
That same company last year bought the Rymill winery in the Coonawarra. One of the region’s showiest estates, it exemplifies the Chinese lust for luxury items – and how China’s almost 500 billionaires like to get their money out of China.
On this same patch of treasured terra rossa soil, known for producing great cabernet sauvignon, another Chinese company has bought Hollick. Others are buying up in Vic- toria and the Barossa. Australi lian red di is the h ultimate li symbol b l of Chinese middle-class desire.
Shu Qin produces Coonawarra red under the “Hundred of Comaum” brand, exclusively for China.
She worries the ChAFTA may prove worthless if the politics worsen. She fears tariffs may return or China may stall her shipments.
“I think Australia needs to speak in a more respectful voice to China,” she says.
It’s a consistently heard plea from Chinese-Australians with financial stakes: please do not upset them.
The ChAFTA was negotiat- ed by former Liberal trade minister, i i Ad Andrew R Robb, bb who h left government then took an $880,000 annual retainer from Landbridge, whose executives he’d met while in office.
The Chinese-born mayor of Mount Gambier, Andrew Lee, managed to negotiate an extraordinary 5 per cent commission from Landbridge over the $13.2m sale of Rymill – though he is not an estate agent.
The SA Ombudsman concluded Lee “walked a very fine ethical line dealing with the Landbridge Group” but did nothing wrong, apart from handing his business card to Landbridge executives while on o official mayoral business to t China. Chi
Why does a company such as Landbridge so handsomely reward Australian intermediaries? Most Australians would h have no polite explanation.
John Hugh, a former Parr ramatta councillor, learned he’d been observed meeting practitioners of Falun Gong, the spiritual society outla lawed in China. ( Hugh is a C Christian; he says they were ju just constituents).
He was warned by Chinese c consular staff against fraternisin ing with them. He told them h he’d talk to whoever he liked.
He says China is busy undermining Australia. “I grew up in China and heard a lot of comments,” he says. “They believe Aussies are easy to fool.
“They are very good at taking advantage of our democratic systems to take them over one by one. They see themselves as a rising power and want to export their ideology. They want to take on Western values in Australia.”
Of Landbridge, there is dispute as to whether the company is privately owned, an arm of government, or both.
“There’s no such thing as private money,” says Hugh. “You have to take the Government’s orders, otherwise your business will suffer.”
Chinese billionaires may claim to be independently wealthy, but China does not agree.
Wang Jianlin, who headed the Wanda Group, China’s biggest international developer, was pulled back to the mainland and forced to sell assets – including the Hoyts Cinema chain in Australia and the Jewel development on the Gold Coast – over Chinese government concerns he was amassing too much debt.
Wu Xiaohui, head of global investor and insurer Anbang, which sought Australian acquisitions, was sentenced in May to 18 years for fraud; Xiao Jian Hua, a private banker accused of money laundering, was kidnapped from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong and now awaits trial on the mainland.
These broken-winged magnates tell a story to anyone doing business with China: they may talk a big game, but their fate belongs to the party.