Following a Chinese Communist Part-linked company’s purchase of an Australian island, the Beijing-based firm has banned Australian residents and tourists from visiting the island.
The developer, China Bloom, purchased a 99-year lease on Keswick Island in 2019 and is now “trying to stop Aussies from even setting foot on the public beach,” according to local reports.
“Keep out” signs now plaster the island, including its famed national park, and Aussie residents have been forced to vacate. Residents and tourists are also banned from docking near the island.
Tourism, the economic lifeline of the island, has also come to a complete halt.
What’s more, a couple, who lived on the island for six years, was given three days to vacate in February before being forced to pay the Chinese developed a $100,000 deposit. “I just don’t think they want Australians on the island. I think that they want to have this island solely for the use of the Chinese tourism market,” the former island resident stated.
Greaton’s CEO, Nicho Teng, has been described as having “powerful connections” in China.
In a now-deleted page on Teng’s former company, Haneco, Teng can be seen pictured posing next to Li Keqiang, the current premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China and second-ranked member of the country’s top decision-making body.
“The person known to most people in this photo is not Kochie or even the gentleman on his right, Haneco’s Managing Director Nicho Teng. Nor is it the tall man in the polo shirt, Port’s Chinese AFL recruit, Chen Shaoliang. It isn’t Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull either. It’s the other man sporting a Port Power scarf, none other than the Premier of China, Li Keqiang,” the caption reads.
