It seems that wherever Tony Abbott goes, Howard follows. From the AFR today:
Foreign investment should be welcomed “without any sense of conditionality”, John Howard told a conference in China, just days after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott flagged a tougher approach to investment by state-owned enterprises in a speech in Beijing.
The Australian Financial Review has learned Mr Howard, in not his only recent supportive move on Chinese investment, delivered the keynote speech at a summit of business leaders in Kunming in late July, saying foreign investment was part of the progress of globalisation and should be welcomed, provided it complied with reasonable laws of the host nation.
…Two days earlier, Mr Abbott triggered a debate about the Coalition’s approach to Chinese investment by saying in Beijing that it would rarely be in Australia’s interest to allow a foreign government to control an Australian business.
