Australia’s governing Liberal-National Party—currently in caretaker mode due to an election—plans to build a new $1.5 billion port facility in the country’s far north city of Darwin to replace an existing China-leased port, the country’s incumbent deputy prime minister has announced. On the campaign trail in Darwin on April 11, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce unveiled details of a new port facility at Middle Arm, which he said would bring in close to $16 billion worth of private investment and strengthen the country’s resilience in the face of geopolitical instability in the Indo-Pacific. The new port would be built near Darwin Port at East Arm, which the Northern Territory government leases for 99 years to Landbridge, a Chinese company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. “Our nation must become as strong as possible, as quickly as possible, and what we’re doing here at Middle Arm with $1.5 billion just …