A Chinese developer that bought a 99-year lease on an idyllic island on the Great Barrier Reef has slapped a strict ban on Australian tourists visiting or renting properties there.

Keswick Island lies in the Whitsunday Islands, 34km north-east of Mackay in Central Queensland. In 2019, it was partially bought by China Bloom, a company directly linked to the brutal dictatorship of Xi Jinping’s Communist China.

Since then, Australians have been forced out, with access to the airstrip blocked, and boats prevented from reaching the island. The company has also prohibited Australians from renting Airbnb properties because it claims that the island is now “the property of the Chinese Communist Party.”

A couple who had rented a home on the island for six years were issued their marching orders almost as soon as the island’s lease was signed. Speaking to A Current Affair, Julie Willis, a former resident said, “I just don’t think they want Australians on the island. I think they want this island solely for the use of the Chinese tourism market.”

China Bloom gave Julie and her partner Robert Lee just three days to pack their stuff and ship out of their home of six years. When the couple tried to buy another property China Bloom demanded an impossible $70,000 on top of the price to cover any supposed damages to the house.

“I think they were trying to deter us from buying the property,” Willis said. “I don’t think they want us here.”

While the majority of Keswick Island is listed as a national park, the Queensland Department of Resources which oversees the listed island had no scruples about approving its lease to Communist China. As such, they’re largely appeasing Australia’s greatest national security threat.

When approached by media, a spokesperson for the department brushed them off, saying, “The Department’s responsibility is to work with both the head lessee China Bloom and sublessees to ensure all relevant activities are in accordance with the terms of the lease, particularly as China Bloom works to upgrade the island’s roads, boat ramps, jetties and marine infrastructure. The majority of the issues raised by a small number sublessees do not fall under the terms of the lease and are a commercial matter between them and the head lessee to resolve.”

This cannot help but be interpreted as the Queensland Government approving Communist ownership of Australian territory so long as the price is right. It is little wonder that China feels it can do as it pleases with our country, especially under a Labor government.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who has presided over the economic downfall of that state, and who was dubbed “Dictator Dan” for imposing the most severe lockdown measures in the country follows this Labor trend of selling out to China. He is the only Premier to trade his state into partnership with the dreaded Chinese Silk Road.

The suggestion by Qld’s Department of Resources that they’re simply upgrading Keswick Island’s infrastructure with Chinese money reveals the mentality that has led Australia to its greatest national security threat since the Imperial Japanese Army reached New Guinea.

Revelations about China’s grab of the Whitsunday Islands comes after a meme created for the Chinese Communist Party was posted on Twitter depicting a grinning Australian soldier beheading an Afghani child. The image provoked outrage with Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanding an apology from the Chinese government and issuing a request for Twitter to remove the offensive Tweet.

Twitter declined despite its social media platform being banned in China. Twitter recently blocked users sharing Tweets about incriminating material found on the laptop of Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s laptop.

Twitter is anxious to access China’s domestic market and whatever social justice it believes it is safeguarding by banning non-conforming users is a con. While China is revelling in the allegations raised in the Brereton Report into alleged war crimes committed by Australia’s elite soldiers in Afghanistan, it is overly sensitive to criticism. The current trade blitz on Australian exports arose over the federal government’s belated resolve on issues relating to national security and China, along with a call for an international inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

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Brian Dove

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