Anthony Albanese doesn’t fear Chinese retaliation for Port sale
The PM says he is not worried about Beijing using trade blocks to punish Australia if Labor goes ahead with its plan to take the lease of the Darwin Port away from a Chinese-owned company.
Anthony Albanese says he is not worried about Beijing using trade blocks to punish Australia if Labor goes ahead with its plan to take the lease of the Darwin Port away from a Chinese-owned company.
The Prime Minister said he remained committed to his election pledge to return the lease of the strategically important Port into Australian hands, and responded simply “no” when asked if he feared economic retaliation.
Mr Albanese said if Chinese officials raised the planned sale during meetings due on Tuesday, which includes a one-on-one with President Xi Jinping, he would make Australia’s position
“very clear”.
“We want the Port to go into Australian ownership,” he said.
“We’re ... clear about it, we’ll be orderly about it and we will go through that process.”
But PM was reticent to preemptively outline every single point he planned to raise with Mr Xi.
“I’ll treat (Mr Xi) with the respect that I would any leader of another country, and not foreshadow everything today,” he said.
He did confirm he would raise the plight of jailed Australian Dr Yang Hengjun during his meetings with Chinese leadership, noting he had a strong track record of securing the release of citizens unfairly incarcerated abroad.
As China seeks to position itself as a more calm and stable alternative to the US under the Trump Administration, Mr Albanese said he did not make comparisons.
“What I do is I want to see a stable and secure region,” he said.
“I think that’s the in interest of everyone in the Indo Pacific.”
Mr Albanese, who is in Shanghai on the second day of a week long visit to China, hosted iron ore mining chiefs at a roundtable with Chinese steel producers on Monday morning and said economic prosperity was tied to peace.
“We’ve seen the disruption that occurs when there’s conflict in the world,” he said.
“That’s why we need to make sure that we do everything we can to promote peace and security in the region.”
Fortescue chairman Dr Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest was among the mining bosses who attended the Shanghai roundtable, where he thanked Mr Albanese for bringing Australia “into the realm” of a “peaceful, long term relationship”.
“It’s invaluable for the (economic) growth and employment in both countries,” he said.
With the US tariffs and a push from the Pentagon for Australia and other allies to lift its defence commitments, including by indicating how its capabilities - such as future AUKUS submarines - might be used in the. event of a conflict, Mr Albanese said while in China he remained focused on the issues in front of him.
Asked if he had a meeting locked in with US President Donald Trump yet, Mr Albanese said he “understood the fascination” with the issue, but insisted that face-to-face introduction would happen this year.
“I look forward to that happening between now and the end of the year - the G20, Quad, APEC, a range of meetings, as well of course the potential for ... another visit to the United States,” said.
Mr Albanese said he had already had three “constructive” phone calls with Mr Trump and looked forward to more “engagement” with the US President.
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Originally published as Anthony Albanese doesn’t fear Chinese retaliation for Port sale
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