China’s efforts to gain a greater stake in Australia’s resource industry suffered a new setback yesterday when a Chinese miner dropped a US$400 million bid for a controlling stake in an Australian rare earths miner.
Earlier yesterday, the Australian defense department rejected a separate Chinese investment in an outback mining venture, saying it threatened national security.
China’s latest failed attempt to gain a larger slice of Australia’s raw materials will upset the already strained ties between Canberra and Bejing.
China is Australia’s biggest export market, with trade worth US$53 billion last year, but ties soured in August when China arrested an Australian mining executive and Canberra granted a visa to exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co Ltd (CNMC) terminated its bid for Lynas Corp, owner of the world’s largest undeveloped deposit of rare earths, citing stiff conditions imposed by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.
There is strong public and political opposition in Australia to China’s moves to gain a greater hold of its resource industry.
Australia’s Defense Department said yesterday that it would not support a proposed joint venture between Wugang Australia Resources, a wholly owned unit of Chinese state-owned Wuhan Iron and Steel, and Australia’s Western Plains Resources.
The proposed deal would have seen Chinese magnetite resource investment inside the outback Woomera missile range, used as a weapons-testing ground by the military and Australian allies.
The military’s lack of support means there is virtually no chance that approval will be given.
Australian Defense Minister John Faulkner said the defense department’s rejection of the deal had nothing to do with China, but was purely a security issue.
“The Woomera test range is a significant contributor to Australia’s defense capability, and that of our allies, and that’s the focus that defence brings to bear on these issues,” he said.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
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