A woman walks in the rain in Sydney, Australia, March 20, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

China's energy conglomerate Shenhua Energy Co's recent statement about its withdrawal from a project in Australia's New South Wales is another unfair treatment by Australia to discriminate Chinese businesses, experts said.

In the statement by Shenhua Energy Co on Wednesday, the firm said they had reached an agreement after consultation with the New South Wales (NSW) government to withdraw from the Watermark project development at Breeza, south of Gunnedah, marking an end of a 12-year project since the company obtained the right to explore the Watmark area in 2008.

The move is part of the signed agreements on mining rights and treatment of ecological zoned land with the NSW government while satisfying the environmental protection need in the region. 

The NSW government agreed to pay $262 million to Shenhua as compensation and return 51 percent of its exploration licenses in July 2017. The NSW government will now buy back the rights to explore the remaining area of Shenhua.

The Australian government withdrew half of Shenhua's exploration rights in 2017, just as anti-China sentiment was rising in the country at that time, so there is a reason to suspect that politics is at play, Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at the East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The NSW government's backsliding delayed Shenhua's coal mining, forcing the exploration area to shrink to 95 square kilometers from the original 195 square kilometers.

The state government's move has even raised questions by local media outlets over the rationality of the decision.While closing the door on one mine, the government is ramping up mining elsewhere, ABC reported on Thursday.

A tender process began on Thursday for an exploration license for more mining near Wollar in the Central West. American company Peabody operates the Wilpinjong mine in the area and some locals in the small town of Wollar have previously protested against an expansion to the site, said the report.

Shenhua is just one of the coal project operators, as the India's mining giant Adani is going undisrupted, despite the controversy over environmental pollution.

"Any exploitation project to the environment will bring certain ecological impact, but its impact has been fairly managed to a controllable level with modern mining technology," said Chen.

For an extended time, Australian government is very biased against Chinese investments, often followed by imposing bans on Chinese firms' proposals. "Such a behavior will only serve to push back future investments from China," Chen said.

Global Times