VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
(Source: www.yicaiglobal.com)
The Chinese government has just adopted a new set of guidelines for the protection of Chinese capital export to take effect on July 1, 2026.
Competition between the imperialists for the capture of raw materials, labour power and markets via outbound investments has intensified in recent years as China’s economic strength begins to rival that of the US.
Part of that competition is to use compliant governments in capital receptive countries to facilitate or block investment according to its source.
Australia has long been under the control of US and other Western powers owing to the size of their investments here.
Several decades ago, having abandoned the socialist road following the death of Mao Zedong, China embarked on the road to social-imperialism, maintaining its Communist Party leadership and its socialist rhetoric, but exporting capital in competition with the US and others.
At that time, Australia adopted the pretence of having a non-discriminatory policy towards foreign investment here. It still claims that is the case, although it is predominantly Chinese firms that have been blocked from acquiring, or forced to divest, their Australian assets.
Several examples make the point.
Australian government: protecting US capital, attacking Chinese capital
In 2016, Federal Treasurer, and later PM, Scott Morrison blocked the NSW government's planned sale of electricity distributor Ausgrid to two Chinese companies, citing national security issues, in what was seen as “a preliminary decision that could have broader implications for foreign investment in Australia”. The Chinese government-owned State Grid Corporation and the Hong Kong-based company Cheung Kong Infrastructure, had been in the running to secure the 99-year lease for a 50.4 per cent stake in the grid, in a deal that was expected to be worth about $10 billion to the state government.
At that time, and continuing since then, the pro-US media in Australia has directed a campaign against Chinese investments in Australian agriculture and real estate.
Unlike the Australian authorities and major political players, our Party has a genuinely non-discriminately policy, opposing the economic control of Australia by foreign capital whether it comes from China, the US or anywhere else where capital export leads to political, cultural, military and diplomatic coercion over Australia.
Currently, the Australian government is seeking to cancel the 99-year lease that the Chinese Landbridge Corporation has over the Port of Darwin. China is retaliating with the threat of suing Australia for loss of earnings under Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions.
Our view is that all Australian ports should be under the control of an Australian national ports authority.
A final example. in April 2020, the Australian government prohibited an investment in Western Australian rare earths miner Northern Minerals from Chinese state-owned Baotou Steel. Northern Minerals is extracting large quantities of dysprosium and terbium: critical elements for the magnets used for military, computing and clean energy technologies.
In 2023, the Albanese government intervened to stop Yuxiao Fund, another Chinese investor, increasing its stake in Northern Minerals from 10 per cent to 19.9 per cent based on advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Yuxiao Fund, registered in Singapore, had a single shareholder owning a single share, Wu Yuxiao. He is the son of Shandong capitalist Wu Tao whose Yuxiao Group has investments in Africa and in the Chinese gaming industry.
In November 2023, Yuxiao Fund sought to oust Northern Minerals’ previous executive chairman and install its own candidate, Wu Tao, on the Northern Minerals board. This prompted Northern Minerals to request the Australian government to investigate whether a series of share purchases were being orchestrated by Yuxiao Fund to evade investment restrictions imposed by Canberra. It was alleged that Chinese investors in Northern Minerals had transferred their investments to a Hong Kong registered company.
In June 2024, Yuxiao Fund and four associates with ties to Chinese conglomerates were forced to reduce their shareholdings in Northern Minerals.
In April 2026, Australia signed a Critical Minerals Framework with the US to ensure US investment in and access to Australian critical minerals and rare earths.
The agreement included support from both government for a rare earths refinery and further development of ten rare earths mining projects.
To ensure that its policy on foreign investment was “non-discriminatory”, the Albanese government sent China a further message in May 2026, when it ordered another six Chinese companies to divest their holdings in Northern Minerals to prevent Chinese-backed investors from seizing control of the rare earths mining company.
The six investors had to sell their holdings within the next two weeks. They were Hong Kong Ying Tak Ltd, Real International Resources Ltd, Qogir Trading & Service Co Ltd, Chuanyou Cong, Vastness Investment Group Ltd and Lin Zhongxiong, which together held around 17 per cent of the company.
Chinese capitalists retaliate
It is against this background of “non-discriminatory” preference to US investors and restrictions on those from China, that the Chinese have announced their first all-encompassing regulation on outbound investment, named the State Council Regulations on Outbound Investment. According to Chinese sources, the regulations provide “stronger institutional safeguards for protecting investors' lawful rights and interests”.
Article 5 explicitly stipulates that "the country supports investors in carrying out outbound investment activities in accordance with market principles" and that "investors enjoy autonomy in outbound investment in accordance with the law, whereby they make independent decisions, assume their own risks, and bear their own profits and losses."
The regulations promote “market expansion, rights protection, and dispute resolution”.
“It expressly provides that where investors encounter investment barriers or other obstacles to overseas investment and business operations, the competent authorities may conduct investigations according to law and take appropriate action based on the findings.”
“Appropriate actions” may well include the use of tariffs and other sanctions, and the use of Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions.
It may also further encourage Chinese capitalists to make their own decisions about investing in projects that treat foreign workers abysmally, wreak havoc on the environment and undermine biodiversity.
Whether it is capitalism with Chinese or US characteristics, it is still capitalism, and if strong enough, becomes imperialism.
We don’t want either, and neither do the peoples of the world.
For the broadest international unity to abolish capitalism and move onto socialism!