Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) director James Laurenceson has warned that Australia’s education export sector could take another hit if the federal government cancels Landbridge’s 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin.
Laurenceson says the Chinese government would be highly likely to respond by imposing further economic sanctions on Australia; this could include directing Chinese students to boycott Australian universities:
“If the Australian government takes that extreme step of tearing up the [Port of Darwin] deal, that sends one heck of a signal to China about where Canberra sees the future of the bilateral relationship into the long term,” Professor Laurenceson said.
James Laurenceson runs a think tank that was founded with Bob Carr by the very source of dirty CCP money that destroyed the career of Labor senator Sam Dastayari. ACRI should have been disbanded in disgrace when its major donor, Huang Xiamao, was exiled, not refunded and rebranded. That it wasn’t only tells us how compromised UTS is by commercial interests with China, including student revenues and research agreements with the CCP’s surveillance state.
Regardless, canceling Landbridge’s 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin would deliver two positive results.
First, it would undo what was a diabolical transaction brokered by “stooge of China” Andrew Robb.
Landbridge is a shadowy firm involved in all sorts of stuff from chemicals to armed militias. It is widely considered to be beholden to Beijing. At the very least the Port of Darwin is the butt end of Beijing’s One Belt, One Road trade bloc monster.
Second, it would reduce Chinese enrolments at Australia’s universities to sensible and sustainable levels, thereby helping safeguard ethical and pedagogical standards.
According to Associate Professor Salvatore Babones, 11% of total Australian university enrolments in 2017 were Chinese students. This is concentration of Chinese students dwarfed other advanced nations:
This extreme concentration of Chinese students is reflected by the 13 CCP-run Confucius Institutes operating at Australian universities, in addition to the erosion of English-language and teaching standards, the stifling free speech and debate, not to mention the rising incidences of contract cheating.
Thus, canceling Landbridge’s 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin would kill two birds with one stone. Get it done.
