Anthony Albanese to defy Beijing and Xi Jinping and stick to election pledge to take back Darwin port

Anthony Albanese will defy Beijing’s demands for his government to abandon its plan to strip Chinese company Landbridge of its lease over the Port of Darwin, telling Xi Jinping the election pledge is not negotiable.

Businessman Andrew Forrest, left, Anthony Albanese and BHP Australia president Geraldine Slattery in Shanghai on Saturday. Picture: AAP

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Anthony Albanese will defy Beijing’s demands for his government to abandon its plan to strip Chinese company Landbridge of its lease over the Port of Darwin, telling Xi Jinping the election pledge is not negotiable amid threats of economic retaliation.

The Prime Minister will meet the Chinese President as well as Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Tuesday, and the hosts are expected to pursue closer trade, investment and economic co-operation to counter the global chaos caused by Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.

The meetings come amid Mr Albanese’s failure to secure a first meeting with the US President, which the Prime Minister dismissed on Monday as a media “fascination”, and as tensions in the US relationship continue to simmer over defence funding and the AUKUS partnership.

After the leaders’ meetings, a delegation of business figures accompanying Mr Albanese will hold a roundtable with Chinese counterparts before a dinner in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

Mr Albanese, who vowed to raise difficult issues with the Chinese President including calling for the release of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun, said there were “enormous opportunities” to strengthen the relationship through stronger trade and investments in new initiatives such as green iron and steel production.

He said Australia depended on a healthy inflow of foreign capital, but pushed back against Beijing’s complaints over Australia’s foreign investment rules and his ­government’s vow to bring the strategically-located Darwin port back under Australian control.

In a pointed piece published on the second day of Mr Albanese’s five-day China trip, Chinese social media influencer Lu Wenxing said the forced sale of the port could trigger “countermeasures” from China, including on Australia’s $100bn iron ore trade.

“The Chinese side has made it clear that it will not accept any unilateral breach of contract, but at the same time it has shown an open and co-operative attitude,” the former editor of propaganda outlet Voice of the Strait wrote to his 500,000 followers.

“Can Albanese convince the Chinese side during this trip? If the Australian side insists on tearing up the lease agreement, the Chinese side may take countermeasures, such as restricting Australian companies’ market access in China or tightening imports of key resources such as iron ore.”

Mr Albanese at a Steel Decarbonisation Roundtable in Shanghai, China. Picture: AAP

Mr Albanese downplayed the threat, after a meeting between Australia’s iron ore exporters and key Chinese steelmakers in Shanghai on Monday.

“If it’s raised, our position is very clear, and I’m sure that the President is very clear and is knowledgeable of that,” Mr Albanese said before departing for the Chinese capital. “We have a very clear position that we want the port to go to Australian ownership. We’ve been clear about it. We’ve been orderly about it. And we will go through that process.”

Mr Albanese said he was unaware of the piece by the Chinese commentator, but his government didn’t change its position “every time there’s an article written or a tweet or a blog”.

“Good government has a position and advocates for it and implements it. And mine is a good government,” he said.

The future of the port looms as the biggest threat to the stabilisation of the Australia-China relationship, after Labor pledged to force Landbridge to sell the asset if it refused to do so voluntarily.

As revealed by The Australian in May, US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management – which has strong ties to the Trump administration – is poised to make an offer for the port. But Landbridge Group’s billionaire owner Ye Cheng, who is a close confidant of senior Chinese Communist Party figures, has shown no interest in offloading the asset.

Xi Jinping and Mr Albanese at the G20 summit in Brazil in 2024. Picture: Getty Images

Lowy Institute senior fellow for East Asia Richard McGregor said if the government had to resort to using compulsory acquisition powers, it would likely trigger a backlash from Beijing.

“If Landbridge sells the Darwin Port to an Australian-led consortium, that’s a commercial deal and China won’t be able to legitimately criticise it. But if it is a forced sale or takeover, then Beijing will undoubtedly retaliate in some form or another,” Mr McGregor said.

“That would be in part to punish Australia, but it goes much further than that. Chinese state companies have extensive interests in ports around the world – more than 100 ports in about 50 countries. They do not want to see a precedent set in Australia, which would be followed by governments elsewhere in the world.”

China’s government has already made public protests about the Australian government’s commitment to end the 99-year lease of Chinese firm Landbridge. Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian, who attended the Shanghai press conference on Monday, has previously said the firm “deserves encouragement, not punishment”.

The critical social media post came as Australian defence officials braced for the arrival of Chinese spy ships off the North Queensland coast after Australia’s biggest military exercise, Talisman Sabre, began on Sunday.

The presence of Chinese warships off the coast will revive memories of the flotilla of navy vessels that conducted a live-fire drill in the Tasman Sea in February and circumnavigated the country in an unprecedented show of force.

Other state media coverage of the Shanghai leg of the PM’s trip has been overwhelmingly positive, mostly focusing on his efforts to shore up trade and economic ties with China.

One expert told the Global Times the Prime Minister’s trip could serve as a “springboard to propel the bilateral relationship to a higher level”.

Mr Albanese and business leaders at a roundtable in Shanghai. Picture: AAP

The Australian business delegation accompanying the Prime Minister has also been talking up China ties, as they seek to leverage the trip for further access to Australia’s biggest trade partner.

Bran Black, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, will chair a roundtable with senior Chinese business figures on Tuesday in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, which will focus on shared areas in education, smarter agriculture, the green economy and low-carbon transformation.

“China and Australia have a long and deep relationship – a relationship best characterised by shared growth and opportunity,” Mr Black will say in his introductory remarks.

“As an Australian, it’s impossible to visit a modern Chinese city and not feel a small sense of pride that our commodities have played a small part in what is really an extraordinary tale of economic success and human ingenuity.

“Of course, there have been challenges, too – and those challenges have been, and will always be, best managed by dialogue.

“But dialogue also enables us to aspire to new opportunities.”

Rio Tinto’s Kellie Parker in Shanghai. Picture: AAP

Hancock Prospecting CEO of Operations Gerhard Veldsman. Picture: AAP

The Australia-China CEO roundtable will include Macquarie Group boss Shemara Wikramanayake, ANZ executive Simon Ireland, Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest, Rio Tinto’s Kellie Parker, BHP’s Geraldine Slattery, Bluescope’s Mark Vassella and the Australian China Business Council president David Olsson.

Mr Albanese on Monday dismissed questions over his inability so far to secure a meeting with Mr Trump, saying he would sit down with the US President before long.

“I’ve been to the United States five times, I’ve been to China twice. Tony Abbott visited Beijing before Washington after his election, as did Malcolm Fraser, as did Kevin Rudd,” he said.

“I think there needs to be a bit of perspective here, as much as I understand the fascination.

“I look forward to a constructive engagement with President Trump. We have had three constructive phone conversations. I look forward to that (meeting) happening between now and the end of the year. G20, Quad APEC – (there are) a range of meetings … (as well) as of course, the potential for a visit, another visit, to the United States,” he said.

Mr Albanese denied he was frustrated with a leak from Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, who has reportedly demanded Canberra and Tokyo give Washington a commitment to help the US defend Taiwan in a potential war with China.

He said he drew no comparisons between the relative stability of China as a trade partner and the upheaval caused by the US tariffs. “What I do is I want to see a stable and secure region,” he said.

“I think that’s in the interests of everyone in the Indo-Pacific, but that’s an approach I take to global politics as well,” Mr Albanese said.

He said Australia’s support for free and fair trade “does provide potential opportunities for Australia in this region as well, not just with China, but with ASEAN nations”.