Something the Australian government has never been very interested in.

Selling off assets to citizens of foreign countries has always been stupid. It is not foreign investment: it is investment for the foreigners. But, selling assets to citizens with connections to the Chinese Communist Party, a potential enemy of our country, should always been unthinkable.

There are rules for the foreign purchase of residential property: government approval must be sort prior to purchase; properties must be sold when an owner’s temporary visa expires; temporary visa holders cannot own more than one established property; Australian companies and trusts controlled by foreigners cannot own established properties; properties ostensibly bought to live in cannot be let out; new properties and redevelopments must be commenced within a set time frame.

All these rules have been broken, as well as false information given. Fines for offences range from $135, 000 plus 3 years jail for anyone buying a property without Foreign Investment Board approval, to $225,000 for anyone assisting illegal purchases.

The average fine levied by the ATO, has been $7,000 only! The same old kowtowing by a governments when it comes to foreigners, particularly the Chinese

But, hooray hooray, China itself has come to the rescue of our gormless and gutless government and its pathetic public service.

The latest FIRB report shows that Chinese investment in our residential market has plummeted. In 2016, the CCP put a brake on money flowing out of China because of suspected money laundering by rich Communists. Since then, up to 2018-19, there has been a big decline in residential investment from 26,253 to 3,986 properties.

It’s fortunate in this case that China takes criminal activity more seriously than our own ‘dollars at any price’ government. And it is a disgrace that the ATO, busy hounding small business and individuals for minor matters, turns a virtual blind eye to illegal foreign buyers who REDUCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG AUSTRALIANS

A Current Affair, two nights ago, reported that Chinese are buying up Sydney properties in recent weeks.

Reported that local investment has fallen much more than decline by Chinese.

Some properties remain vacant, only used when the Chinese owners come to town.

Chris,

It has been Chinese cash that has kept the Australian economy afloat for the past 30 years. That's why politicians, bureaucrats and business people have been populating the country with cashed up Chinese.

And they will use the same tactics for economic recovery in the wake of the Wuhan Bat Soup Virus pandemic.

I suspect from the odd bits that I hear that there is a separate Chinese
property market operating in Australia.
It is based on trust. The buyer from China gets a local Chinese resident
to purchase the property from a Chinese owned company and pays for it in China.
The local holds it for them indefinitely.
The local works as his agent while pretending to own the property.
There is little or no risk as the relatives in China could get a visit
if there was a problem.
It would be interesting to see how many students own property in Australia
and are living in the property.

What I never seem to hear is, how many Australian properties are sold to others ? Are the Chinese really the only foreigners buying here ?
Or, are the Chinese the preferred i.e. highest bidding buyers ? What taxes are there for Australians who sell to foreigners ? Don't Australians buy Australian properties ? Obviously, it's money offered that dictates who is selling to whom but shouldn't there be a market value from an Australian bench mark & everything above that benchmark is absorbed by Tax ? If the Chinese are permitted to out-bid any Australian buyers then why bother with the many other stifling regulations in the first place ! Do Australians want to build a Nation or just live in one paid for by a few, to a few ?

It's hard to know because there is confusion about what is foreign 'investment' (helping Australia) and what is merely of help to foreign buyers, some of whom don't leave a cent in Australia (think China shipping agricultural products directly to China within paying anything into our economy).

The U.S is the highest actual investor in a list of twenty, with China ninth.

However, it has to be remembered that only China is an economic and military threat to Australia. And not one of the other countries listed bullies or threatens us. Trade with China is one thing; selling bits of our country off to them should be a no-no.

We should be talking less about a third of our trade with with a Communist dictatorship, and concentrating on the two thirds with democratic, non-threatening countries whose ethics and ways of doing busines s are like our own.

Went to an auction last year, when my previous house was resold, and I
was standing next to a bidder and he mumbled to his wife, "Bloody hell"
the Chinese are here. However the Chinese were outbid by an Australian.
It would be interesting to go to a few auctions and watch what happens.
Notice how many agents have Chinese sales ladies ?

Bazz,

Good for the Aussies.

We seem to see a lot of Asians at auctions - might not be all Chinese - but we have to remember that Asians stand out like dog's nuts in a Caucasian country, just as Cuacsians do in Asia.

There's a company called "Poly Global" - an
international developer with a very strong
presence in Australia, UK, USA - and it's
headquarters is in mainland China.

Google the company and see how far it has spread
in real estate development in our various states.

It's massive.

Here's a link that maybe useful:

http://www.polyglobal.com/about/our-history

The Poly Developments and Holdings -
is a Chinese real estate developer and
a subsiduary of the state-owned China Poly Group.
They are spreading throughout Australia in both
residential and commercial developments.

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Real_Estate

I think Australians, as many people in the West, believe that history is over, and we have entered a new age where fights for dominance and control are over. This is why many people don't see a problem with having land here owned by China, they can't forsee, or refuse to forsee, a potential major conflict where this might be used against us. Essentially, a form of denial.

"Denial". That fits. It's easier for some people to make out that it's not happening than it is to gird their loins and speak up.

We can speak up all we want - but it's the government
decisions that allow it to happen.

Money talks very loudly!

All you need is cash.

We are not speaking up, though. We are returning the same appalling politicians to Canberra election after election. Until we get better nominees, we should refuse to support the self-serving careerists by putting blank ballot papers into the box - with helpful comments, if desired. As long as we have the same parties putting up the same hacks, nothing will change.

Therein lies the problem.

How do we get people to unite and do what
you suggest?

We need to spread the word, Foxy, here and via the more prolific social media; letters to the editor; directly to the politicians who are supposed to be representing us. We are spoilt for ways to communicate these days.

Email just received:

"Trade tensions escalate: China threatens to stop buying Australian politicians".

I'm still hoping that decent politicians will
eventually come through - ones along the lines
of people like John Hewson.

Foxy,

Maybe if we are lucky Andrew Forrest might run for Parliament. He could run for Chisholm instead of Gladys Liu. They are both affiliated or have been affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. So we know where they stand on the decent scale meter.

Mr O,

I thin that the Coalition is going to have to
choose their candidates more carefully in
the future. There are lessons to be learned
from past elections. Hopefully this will
happen in the future.

There's an interesting article on the topic:

http://www.theconversation.com/lessons-from-the-election-62776

Foxy,

I agree with the comments in the article.

Unfortunately Australia's politicians, bureaucrats and businesses have been turning a blind eye to China's intentions, starting with Hawke who got people to trade off nation building for tax cuts.

I don't believe we will see any change and I think Australia will be bringing in up to 15 millions of cashed Chinese and massive amounts of Chinese capital over the next decade in an attempt to overcome the damage caused by the Wuhan Bat Soup virus.

Ask Australians if they want Chinese cash or freedom and they will tell you the cash every time.

It's official. The Chinese economy is tanking, which could go some way to explaining their bellicose attitude to Australia.

ttbn,

I've been telling my wife for past month that the Chinese economy is bleeding.

Who in their right mind wants to be economically tied to China any longer. I think a lot of smart people will want to distance themselves from the probable source of the next coronavirus pandemic to prevent the businesses going to the wall again. I would be looking for markets outside of China if I was a businessman with an eye on the future.

If everyone stops trading with China and starts making their own stuff then China will basically implode which might even bring down the likes of Xi, Forrest and Stokes.

Maybe it will be China's economic collapse that results in a world wide depression, not America's.

Foxy said:
I thin that the Coalition is going to have to choose their candidates
more carefully in the future.

So get rid of the ones that won an unwinable election ?
Hmm, needs a bit better aim than that.

Bazz,

What Foxy was alluding to is the fact there is now a lot of resentment towards the Chinese hence the Coalition should probably be a bit particular who it is sleeping with; like Andrew Forrest is now realising after he pushed Greg Hunt off the podium to give a voice to the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr Opinion,

You should have more faith in the Australian population.

Polls are showing a less favourable attitude towards China in recent years.

yes, we have to air our concern about the rise of authoritarian China via every source.

Would help if our jellyback academics said something as well, instead of kissing china's a..

but, the simplistic left will do jack ..., because they do live in a world of make believe when it comes to calling a spade a spade about different societies.

having said that, Clive Hamilton has given China a good serve in recent timers.

With Aussies accepting temporary economic decline from the virus, why cant they also adapt to less reliance on dodgy China and a bit of financial pain.

two areas i am going to start researching extensively is chinese ownership of our land, and where are the chinese students and immigrants going to in terms of employment.

Cris,

Of course, we should acknowledge that China is a dictatorship, carrying on ancient Confucian traditions of obedience to authority without question, under the guise of bankrupt communism. Yes, that's going to be incredibly hard for the Chinese people to modify, let alone reform.

So of course we should be diversifying our international links, economic, social and political. India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam come to mind, but also the west coast of South America, South Africa and Kenya.

Yes, there should be a thorough investigation into the origins of this Coronavirus, without the paranoia. And, it has to be said, the underlying racism of many comments on OLO.

Joe

I hope I never come across as racist. i am a person of southern European heritage and despise any notion that ridicules someone for their race.

I also believe that Australia, despite its previous racist history, has for many decades become one of the great examples of the world where we are diverse and interact to improve our society.

I have faith that Chinese (and whoever else) will also embrace our way of life.

But, I always think that trends should also be investigated.

I am one who believes that there could be threats to social cohesion from too many people coming from one or two regions, especially if they immediately occupy a higher level of wealth that makes it harder for ordinary Australians, albeit I am open to be proven wrong with any such concern from any research findings.

Bazz,

You seem to have misunderstood what was being
said. Read the link I cited.

Mr. O,

Simon Birmingham has told farmers they should be looking for other markets. Hopefully, he and his department will be helping. That's what they are paid for.

Donald Trump indicated this morning that cutting all ties with China is an option for him.

People should start recognising that MOST of our trade (2/3rds) is NOT with China. We got along fine without China in the past; we can do it again. Stiff cheese about self-serving billionaires like Forrest et al, and politicians receiving bribes .... oops, donations.

Did your wife seem pleased when you gave her the news about China's economy?

We should also note that China, whose leadership does whatever it likes with its resources without democratic constraints, also plays the same game as the West in terms of boosting economic growth.

Its total public, private and govt debt is also $US40 Trillion, albeit behind the $US68 trillion owed by the US.

It does offer any profound wisdom in economic terms. It s just another corrupt authoritarian nation, albeit the richest and most dangerous yet since 1945.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-debt/chinas-debt-tops-300-of-gdp-now-15-of-global-total-iif-idUSKCN1UD0KD

ttbn,

She's happy to hear anything bad about China. She is the one who told me to stop calling them Chinese and start calling them parasites.

Did you see today's news article on MSN about the head of a Chinese gang in Sydney buying cans of stolen baby formula (shoplifted from supermarkets buy groups of Chinese) at $15 a can and shipping it to China where it catches $80 a can.

It was part of a big police sting. They should put them in gaol, cancel their visa or citizenship and ship them back to China when they're released each labelled with a big sticker across the forehead that reads MADE IN CHINA and stamped in red DEFECTIVE.

Misop,

As to my comments about half-witted racist comments on OLO, I rest my case.

Do you think they should also be tarred and feathered before throwing them onto an old barge back to China ?

As for Trumpf's piss-and-wind declaration about cutting off all trade with China, does that include all of Walmart's products ? Yes, it might be so easy to start to produce all of Walmart's products in the US, and cheaper too, preferably by next month. All Trumpf has to do is click his heels, like Dorothy. Magic !

Wow, at least two half-wits mentioned in one post.

Joe

Mr. O,

Didn't see that but I'm not surprised. I agree that they should be returned to China post haste. They are most unlikely to be Hong Kong Chinese or ROC Chinese, so they need to be given the big A. I think we have to make the distinction. The non-mainland Chinese have no reason to be aiding the Chinese Communists.

Hong Kong Chinese are appear to be afraid of doing anything to China overtly as they are afraid of repercussions on their families. It will be interesting as to what happens in Hong Kong.

Strangely this seems to be contradicted by the shopping centre protests in Hong Kong and the Glory to Hong Kong song. I'm not sure that face masks will protect their identities.

The Chinese diaspora that attend the anti-China protests in Australia don't appear to be from Kong Hong annecdotally but from other nations such as Taiwan, Malaysia, perhaps Indonesia.

Either way China is going to win- very sad for the Kong Hong people. Can't help but think we are complicit in this result. Australian Socialists appear to be supporting China- the Socialists appear to be quite influential over the Labor Party and of course the Greens are also know as Watermelon's. Good to see Paul is not supporting the Chinese based on his previous comments.

In the end at least the sacrifice of the Hong Kong people will demonstrate the character of China and that sovereignty is sacred.

The Chinese ambassador has ridiculed Australia again over the enquiry into the virus his country introduced. It is clear that China has no concept of tact and diplomacy when they send pricks like the one they've sent here to other countries.

https://www.news.com.au/national/fears-one-million-aussie-homes-could-soon-be-owned-by-foreign-buyers/news-story/c50a4112bab4f3ed8fae27277f313f54

ttbn said;
that China has no concept of tact and diplomacy when they send pricks
like the one they've sent here to other countries.

You have it wrong, they send people like that deliberately.
The Vassal states have to be made aware of their position.
You may think I am being sarcastic, but I am not, I am being
very serious, the Central Kingdom concept goes back a long way.
It is also widespread in their society. You occasionally hear it here
from local Chinese, usually not put as bluntly as I have put it here.
Remember President Xi said that the United States in not a Sovereign Country.

Can it be put more bluntly than tha