Author: Peter Yuan Cai

After the failure to consummate the marriage of Rio Tinto and Chinalco, the mood in Australia is one of celebration. The public is generally relieved that part of the jewel in the crown of Australia’s mining assets would not be pawned to Red China after all and the Rudd government was also spared the agony of making a politically difficult decision that had the potential to damage the increasingly important Sino-Australian relationship.

Opposition Senator Barnaby Joyce triumphantly told reporters that ‘it is great for the Australian people that this deal falls over and we do not have the complications of the Communist People’s Republic of China’s government owning the wealth of Australia.’

Apart from the tacit acknowledgement of Chinalco’s expression of ‘deep disappointment’ in the Australian press, Chinese voices have been conspicuously absent from this moment. Read more…