On July 2, BBC Chinese reported that Hong Kong Cheung Kong (Holdings) recently announced a plan to acquire Australia’s largest natural gas pipeline company, APA. However, this once again triggered considerable debate in Australia, based on the worry about losing control of critical national infrastructure to a foreign power. Hong Kong is currently under Chinese rule with the “One Nation Two Systems” policy. However, the system has no assurance that a Hong Kong company could be prevented from obeying an order from Beijing. The Cheung Kong acquisition attempt is to obtain a 100 percent stake in APA. The deal is valued at around US$9.5 billion. However, there is no signed agreement yet and multiple Australian officials have already stood up to express their concerns on antitrust and national security grounds. Cheung Kong has a large number of investments on a global level, especially in Britain and Canada. It already has control over many infrastructure companies covering most of the Australian states.
Source: BBC Chinese, July 2, 2018
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-44680774