CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government announced Friday it has decided not to cancel a Chinese company’s 99-year lease on strategically important Darwin Port despite U.S. concerns that the foreign control could be used to spy on its military forces.
Landbridge Industry Australia, a subsidiary of Rizhao-based Shandong Landbridge Group, signed the lease with the debt-laden Northern Territory government in 2015. That was three years after U.S. Marines began annual rotations through Darwin as part of the U.S. pivot to Asia.Fijian leader hopes Australian submarines powered by US nuclear technology will enhance peaceThe United States has raised concerns that Chinese port access in Darwin would enhance intelligence gathering on nearby U.S.
Albanese also plans to soon become the first Australian prime minister to visit China in seven years. “The only way to avoid this problem is not to have the lease in the first place and they should bite the bullet and get rid of it,” James added. Obama told Turnbull that Washington should have been given a “heads up about these sorts of things,” The Australian Financial Review newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.Turnbull told reporters the port’s privatization had not been a secret.
The Defense Department and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the main domestic spy agency, have since publicly supported the contract, which was signed a year after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Australia in a highwater mark in bilateral relations.
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