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As Australia frets about Chinese influence, local officials tout Belt and Road Initiative
- The country’s isolated Northern Territory, long dependent on Asian neighbours for prosperity, is now laying out the welcome mat for Beijing’s global trade strategy
- But local governments keen on working with China are at odds with security concerns held by federal officials
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When Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews announced the agenda for his sixth visit to China this week, the leader of the Australian state did not hesitate to mention Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s US$1 trillion infrastructure drive would be the focus of “high-level discussions”, his office said ahead of the two-day trip that began on Tuesday, building on an earlier memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the plan.
A week prior at a reception to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China, Northern Territory chief minister Michael Gunner touted the belt and road programme, which seeks to restore ancient trading routes through investment in roads, bridges, ports and railways, as an economic opportunity for Australia’s isolated and arid northern region.
As an example of “an Australian government win and a Chinese government win”, Gunner pointed to a A$500 million (US$343 million) deal signed in 2015 under which a Chinese company was given a 99-year lease to Port Darwin.
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While Australia’s federal government has cast a critical eye on Chinese investment – declining to sign on to the Belt and Road Initiative and blocking Chinese bids for involvement in the country’s 5G and electricity networks – some individual states and territories are laying out the welcome mat, shrugging off concerns among national policymakers about Beijing’s strategic ambitions.
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