A highly trained shooter was ordered to neutralise demonstrators who stepped out of line at a foreign-owned mine site.
Authorities recently organised a helicopter and sniper to take down protestors who interfered with Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia.
A full police presence was also deployed to support aerial surveillance efforts as Li inspected the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled Kwinana processing plant.
No environmental activists were reported at the site. Only pro-Beijing supporters unfurled Australian and Chinese flags nearby and about 10 Falun Dafa meditation adherents separately held banners, appealing for an end to the CCP’s illegal organ harvesting against fellow “truthful, compassionate and tolerant” compatriots back in Mainland China.
The premier also visited Fortescue Metal Group’s Hazelmere facility where he held talks with founding chairman Andrew Forrest about so-called green metal and hydrogen products, which will be “made in Australia” and supplied to the world. FMG also showed Li its Infinity battery electric train, Europa hydrogen-powered haul truck and a ship engine running on ammonia.
“Our ambition is to provide 100 million tonnes (Mt) of green iron metal to China each year, eliminating more than 200Mt of carbon dioxide emissions,” Forrest said in a public statement.
“Green iron metal will help defeat the challenging pollution and smog issues surrounding some of the world’s biggest cities. It will bring down global emissions dramatically and help prevent the world from seeing a worsening of the lethal humid heat belts that are already driving losses in human life, livestock and productivity in India, the USA, China, South America and Africa.”
Ninety-nine per cent of the nation’s iron ore exports to China come from Western Australia according to the prime minister.
Albanese defended his decision to use a heavy police presence with aerial snipers, saying everyone could still voice their opinion.
“What my government has done is to be able to stabilise the relationship without making any concessions for our values over things such as navigation and over human rights, of which we raise those issues,” Albanese said in a 6PR radio interview.
“We had a lot of pro-Chinese people who were demonstrating their support for … our iron ore in particular, going over there to build the great cities of Beijing and Shanghai and Tianjin and Guangzhou and all these places have been built with WA resources. But at the same time there was a demonstration about human rights in China. That is what we do as a democracy, people can have their say.”
The foreign leader’s four-day Australia visit became widely criticised after Beijing delegates tried to block cameras from filming Cheng Lei. The Sky News presenter was detained and tortured in China for three years because she allegedly disclosed state secrets overseas. Cheng denies wrongdoing and claims she only reported the news for China’s state-run mouthpiece. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade eventually secured her release to Australia after legal processes concluded in late 2023.
Albanese confirmed he raised the incident directly with Li and described the censorship as “clearly unacceptable” and “not appropriate behaviour” in Australia.
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