中企租借澳大利亚港口，美国担忧情报安全

choi

Jane Perlez, 中企租借澳大利亚港口，美国担忧情报安全. 纽约时报中文网, Mar 21, 2016
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20160321/c21darwin/

, which is translated from

Jane Perlez, Chinese Lease of Australian Port Troubles US. New York Times, Mar 21, 2016 (front page).

Quote:

(a) "This month, the United States said it was concerned that China's 'port access could facilitate intelligence collection on US and Australian military forces stationed nearby.'

"It may not look like much, but the scruffy port is a strategic gateway to the South China Sea

"Critics contend that the Chinese bought a front-row seat to spy on American and Australian naval operations.

“There is a deep Chinese interest, driving interest, in understanding how Western military forces operate, right down to the fine details associated with how a ship operates, how it is loaded and unloaded, the types of signals a ship will emit through a variety of sensors and systems,” Peter Jennings, a former Australian defense official who is now the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told a parliamentary inquiry.

(b) China also invests in "a port in Djibouti adjacent to an American military base. But the 99-year Darwin lease was the first time the Chinese had bought into a port of a close American ally hosting American troops.

"The Australian government did not consult with Washington

(c) "The lease to the Chinese company, a shipping and energy conglomerate called Landbridge Group

(d) "Despite its unimpressive real estate, the port here, which was hit with more Japanese bombs in 1942 than Pearl Harbor, has long had strategic value.

"Australia is considering running freedom-of-navigation patrols of the South China Sea from here * * * And this month, the Pentagon asked the national government to base B-1 bombers in the Northern Territory.

"American officials say they believe the lease by Landbridge was a strategic deal, not a commercial one. They cited the length of the lease and the fact that Landbridge paid 20 percent more than the two closest bidders.

"Among the specific worries * * * is that fuel storage tanks used by the American military are inside the area leased to Landbridge.

(e) "The port manager, Terry O’Connor, said Australians would continue to run the port. He said there were no plans to bring in Chinese employees.

"Mr O'Connor said shipping movements in and out of the harbor, including of the 100 or so naval vessels each year, mostly Australian and American, would be kept in the company's Australian computer systems, which are not linked to the Chinese headquarters.

Note:
(a) Darwin is the capital and most populous city of Northern Territory, Australia. In the 2011 census, population of Greater Darwin and City of Darwin itself were 120,585 and 72,929, respectively.

(b) " 'Our pissy little port,' as John Robinson, a flamboyant local tycoon, calls it [Darwin].  The financially hurting government of the Northern Territory was happy to lease it to a Chinese company in October for the bargain price of $361 million, raising money for local infrastructure projects.  'We are the last frontier; you take what you can get,' said Mr Robinson, who is known as Foxy. 'The Northern Territory doesn't have the money for development. Australia doesn't have it. We need the major players like China.' "
(i) pissy (adj):
"1: relating to or suggestive of urine.
     1.1: inferior; contemptible"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... rican_english/pissy
(ii) "bargain price" invariably means a bargain for a shopper -- not the seller. And the context bears this out.

(c) "The lease was reviewed by midlevel [Australian] Defense Department officials, who found no problem, the department said. But the review is less stringent for private companies like Landbridge than for state-owned companies, a distinction that means little in China, where private companies often work hand in glove with the government. * * * The Landbridge website cites the company's close ties to the government."

hand in glove (phrase):
(i) "(US ALSO hand and glove) working together, often to do something ​dishonest"
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... glish/hand-in-glove
(ii) "in extremely close relationship or agreement"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hand%20in%20glove