Poll Finds Australians Uneasy About Chinese Investment

BEIJING â€" From American pig farms to Club Med and British yacht makers, China’s appetite for overseas investment is growing fast and diversifying. Governments and businesses are quick to praise the trend, but what do ordinary citizens think?

Australia is at the forefront of Chinese investment, and on Monday the Lowy Institute, a leading foreign policy research center in Sydney, released the results of a poll in which 57 percent of respondents said Australia was allowing too much investment from China, consistent with findings from previous years.

Chinese outbound investment increased to $77.22 billion in 2012, acording to the Dragon Index, the first index to track Chinese outbound investment globally, by A Capital, a private equity fund based in Brussels.

While Australia is popular, countries like the United States and Canada are catching up, according to a KPMG report, “Demystifying Chinese Investment in Australia: Update March 2013.”

Most investment in Australia was in mining and gas, but paralleling a global trend it is diversifying into sectors like agriculture and real estate. Last month, State Grid Corp., China’s largest energy distributor, bought an $812 million stake in the Australian energy company SP AusNet.

Presented with foreign investment options from around the world including the Norwegian government investment fund a! nd U.S. corporations, respondents gave investments by Chinese state-owned enterprises the lowest rate of approval at 23 percent, in a different poll conducted in August 2012 by Essential Media, a strategic political consulting firm.

“Australians recognize the economic value of Chinese investments but are wary of their provenance and the poor transparency of Chinese state-run companies,” said Kerry Brown, executive director of the China Studies Center at the University of Sydney.

Perceptions have been negatively affected by high-profile cases in which the Chinese government detained Australian citizens born in China, said Alex Oliver, who headed up the Lowy poll this year. “I think Australians are wary of China’s human rights issues, its nondemocratic system and a completely different, unfamiliar society.”

Recent territorial disputes between China and its neighbors may be one reason 41 percent of Australians polled thoughtit was likely that China would become a military threat to Australia in the next 20 years. Allegations of Chinese cyberhacking aimed at government organizations and major corporations in Australia have not helped perceptions.

Over all, it’s a bumpy ride for Chinese investment in Australia. Politicians and the news media are regularly accused of hyping anti-Chinese sentiment, with one conservative politician calling the decision last year to sell a cotton farm to Chinese and Japanese investors “a bloody disgrace.” High-profile mining deals have partly or fully fallen through, with notable examples including those between Chinalco and Rio Tinto in 2009, and between China Minmetals and OZ Minerals the same year. Out of concern for national security, the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has been banned from tendering for government contracts for Australia’s National Broadband Network.

But many in the business community say there is a lot of ignorance and confusion when Australians talk about Chinese investment and China’s strategic motives.

“State owned does not mean state controlled,” said Doug Ferguson, head of the KPMG Australia China Business Practice. “Many of China’s state-owned companies that invest in Australia are driven by profitable growth, access to new markets to sell products and services, acquisition of intellectual property and a desire to learn, similar to American, French, Japanese and Korean companies.”

And it’s easy to forget that China is only the ninth-largest foreign direct investor in Australia. “There has been so much media hype about Chinese investment that no one seems to remember that Chinese investment accounts for just 3 percent of total foreign direct investent in Australia,” said Linda Jakobson, director of the Lowy Institute’s East Asia Program.

Attitudes also differ between sectors. While Australians might be more open to foreign investment in natural resources and the arts, the 2012 Lowy poll found that 81 percent of Australians were against the government allowing foreign companies to buy Australian farmland.

“It hits right at the Australian identity of Australia as a farming nation, an agricultural power harking back to its wool and beef trade,” Ms. Oliver said.

“These concerns about Chinese companies buying into the Australian agricultural sector are valid inasmuch as Chinese companies must do more themselves to shift these misunderstandings and misconceptions about their ownership,” Dr. Brown said.

Engagement might be one key to a broader understanding of investor motivations. The 2013 Lowy poll i! ndicated ! that people from Western Australia, the state that receives the most Chinese investment, were the least concerned about China as a military threat.

Chinese managing directors who speak good English, plan to have longer-term careers in Australia and understand Australian business culture are also ideal, Mr. Ferguson said. “Australia is a very sports crazy country, so it helps that Huawei and LiuGong have sponsored rugby league jerseys. It’s a similar strategy to what the Japanese do in Australia.”

“Changing Australian perceptions is a public diplomacy challenge for China. From time to time, Australians are reminded that China’s motivations might not be benign, “ Ms. Oliver said.

Yet despite some contradictory views in the poll that Australians had toward their country’s engagement with Asia, the vast majority of respondents, 87 percent, thought it was possible for Australia to have a good relationship with China and the United States at the same time.

“Australians are ery pragmatic towards China. From a business point of view, Australians are firmly attached to their hip pocket and they know which side their bread is buttered on,” Ms. Oliver said. “For that reason, it will be business as usual with China.”