<Australia Breaknews=Report By Eddy Kim>
▲ Investment in Australia by China's big hands has been disrupted by political conflicts between the two countries. © Australia Break News
The internal feud over the Australian government's regulations on Chinese investment is expected to intensify.
Amid deepening political conflicts between China and Australia, China's investment in Australia fell 61% year-on-year last year to its lowest level in six years.
According to Reuters' report on the 28th (local time), citing data from the Australian National University's Institute of East Asian Economics (EABER), China's investment last year was 1 billion Australian dollars, consisting of real estate (45%), mining (40%) and manufacturing (15%).
Shiro Armstrong, director of the institute, said the decline was greater than the 42% drop in direct overseas investment measured by the United Nations worldwide amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
"This reflects not only the pandemic effect, but also the Australian government's increased surveillance of foreign investment, especially China," he said.
Australia reorganized the Foreign Investment Act last year, allowing the government to have a veto or force the sale of the project if it poses a risk to national security.
Australian Finance Minister Josh Friedenberg said in June last year that national security tests would be applied to telecommunications, energy, power companies and data collection companies.
Chinese dairy giant Meng Niu said in August that it would give up its acquisition of Ryan Darey & Drink, an Australian subsidiary of Japan's Giraffe Holdings, after the Australian government hinted at blocking the merger.
The Chinese Embassy in Australia said in November last year that 10 investment projects in China were blocked based on national security.
Later, China imposed tariffs on Australian wines and barley, and restricted the unloading of Australian coal from Chinese ports.
China's investment in Australia peaked at 16.5 billion Australian dollars in 2016. By 2020, 86% of China's investment in Australia had come from its Australian subsidiary.
Conflicts with China over the Australian government's investment regulations, which have put forward national security, are expected to serve as an important variable in the international political landscape.
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