PHOTO: Chinese buyers were denied the bid on S Kidman and Co’s Anna Creek, the biggest cattle station in the world.  

The Foreign Investment Review Board’s decision to increase the level of screening of Chinese companies investing in Australia was unnecessary and a backflip on the promises made in the China-Australia Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA), Chinese investors, private companies and deal makers say.

Both Chinese groups who have either done or yet to do business in Australia were angered by the token “political move” and warned that not only would Chinese investors leave Australia altogether but it would break down the China-Australia trade relationship which Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared to be repairing.

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