Australia to Re-examine Lease of Darwin Port by Chinese Company

On 8 June local time, Australian new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his Labor government would review the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to a CCP-owned company.

On 13 October 2015, the Northern Territory government reportedly leased the Port of Darwin, including facilities such as the Darwin Marine Supply Base and Fort Hill Wharf, to the CCP’s state-owned Landbridge Group for a total of $506 million. At that time, the US government expressed extreme concerns about the lease. A senior Australian Defence Force officer had also said that the Australian Navy conducted exercises in Darwin Harbour every year with more than 100 visiting foreign warships. But the fact that navy port lessee was from Communist China inevitably raises security concerns.

Since 2012, the port of Darwin, considered as a strategic location, has been foreign establishments of the US Marine Corps. Hence, this controversial lease became a focus of Australia’s national security and there were calls for its termination within Australia from time to time. Before the Australian election, on 26 April Anthony Albanese said that Darwin should not be sold to Communist China and that Australia must stand up for its national interests and promised to review the lease if he won the election.