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Aussie tycoon raps rule against China investors

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-30 11:30

CANBERRA: Australia's fifth-richest man has denounced the government's foreign investment rules against China as racist, leading local newspaper the Australian reports Wednesday.

Clive Palmer claims those rules are weighted against Chinese companies seeking to buy into Australian resource projects.

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The Queensland-based mining magnate said contrasting an exemption allowing US investors to invest up to 953 million dollars (US$829 million) in an Australian business without foreign investment approval with the tight controls applying to the Chinese in the resource sector, the absence of a "level playing field" could cause Beijing to spend its estimated 1.8 trillion dollars (US$1.6 trillion) in cash reserves elsewhere.

"We've got the opportunity to grab that if our politicians could only be fair and treat the Chinese people and Chinese government with the dignity they deserve," Palmer said.

"Why should the average American, regardless of his education or qualifications, have the right to invest 950 million dollars in Australia but the average Chinese person, regardless of how much money he has, is not allowed to invest without our Treasurer saying so?" he argues.

Palmer made the comments to a business lunch in Brisbane Tuesday.

Palmer this week returned from an investment mission to China, where he was drumming up support for his company's 7 billion dollars (US$6.1 billion) development in a central Queensland Basin, combining a giant new coal mine with a purportedly "clean" power station, rail and port upgrades.

Australian Foreign Investment Review Board director Patrick Colmer last week warned Chinese investors to talk to the advisory body first, before signing deals.