A whistleblower has revealed how he watched essential medical equipment being purchased from Australian pharmacies then shipped to China during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
Greenland Group, which manages property developments across the globe with the support of the Chinese government, told employees at its Sydney office in January to stop their normal work.
Instead, they were tasked with sourcing face masks, hand sanitisers, thermometers and other medical items, storing them at their office and shipping them to China.
One of the company’s workers told 60 Minutes he felt uncomfortable and suspicious watching board rooms fill up with emergency equipment being repackaged for export.
‘I think in a time of crisis, we all have a responsibility to do something, and I felt that I had to do something,’ he said.
‘It just didn’t sit with me that this type of thing could happen. I couldn’t just watch it and just stay silent.’
Medical experts are desperately worried about a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is already leaving frontline medical staff exposed to coronavirus infection.
Australia’s supply of face masks had already been depleted by the bushfire crisis when the coronavirus pandemic took off in Wuhan, China.
Pallets of medical equipment being shipped to China by property developers Risland Australia, another Beijing-backed firm that repurposed staff to buy up supplies for China
Risland sent 90 tonnes of medical supplies bought in Australia back to China in February
As the pandemic began to take hold in Australia, bulk supplies of vital medical items were shipped from Sydney to China at the request of Beijing-backed Greenland Group.
‘It definitely rose my suspicion think the main concern was if all of these essential medical items leave the country, what’s left for us?’ the Greenland whistleblower said.
‘It is very unsettling that essential equipment can just leave our borders in massive commercial quantities
Greenland Group was not the only Chinese-backed company to buy up Australian supplies.
Chinese real estate developer Poly Developments and Holdings told staff at the Sydney office in Australia Square to check local pharmacies for N95 surgical face masks or 8210 masks.
The heavy-duty waterproof protective equipment that medical workers are using overseas to deal with coronavirus, that Australian health care workers can only dream about
The staff replied they were searching the city from Eastwood to Hornsby, Penrith and Mona Vale.
In February, another Chinese property developer, Risland Australia, shipped 90 tonnes of medical protection equipment to China.
Risland made an online post last month saying ’90 tonnes of selective medical supplies’ were sent ‘air transport direct from Sydney to Wuhan via corporate jet’.
Video footage also emerged showed boxes of surgical masks being stacked up at a Perth airport before being sent to Wuhan on February 8 – when there were 15 cases of coronavirus in Australia.
China makes most of the world’s protective equipment after globalisation shifted manufacturing to the low-cost producer. Workers at a face mask production line on March 30 in Longyan, Fujian Province (pictured). China has seized production at a number of factories
China did not just tell its companies in Australia to buy up medical supplies – the Chinese Communist Party’s affiliates were buying up supplies around the world.
In two months, China amassed an estimated 2.4 billion pieces of protective equipment including more than 2 billion masks, 60 Minutes reported.
At the same time it seized production at factories producing protective equipment for export to countries around the world.
Chinese property developers Greenland sent staff out to buy the medical supplies (pictured). A whistleblower has revealed how he felt so uncomfortable he just had to take action
The whistleblower told 60 Minutes how suspicious he felt watching the boxes of medical supplies being unpacked and repacked in the staff room, board room and lunch room
Face mask manufacturer Medicom Group’s president of North American operations Guillaume Laverdure said the Chinese Government had requisitioned three factories in China and one in Shanghai.
‘So the government sent people to take control of the inventory and the products in our factory,’ Mr Laverdure told 60 Minutes.
The coronavirus crisis has revealed the weakness of a globalised supply chain which has left Australia reliant on imports, stripped of its capacity to make lifesaving equipment in the face of a deadly pandemic.
By allowing importers to undercut domestic manufacturers, Australia lost the ability to make its own masks and all the manufacturing capacity moved to low-cost China.
World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had sounded the alarm on the global shortage of protective equipment on February 7, even as Chinese companies were stripping Australian pharmacies of masks.
‘The world is facing severe disruption in the market for personal protective equipment,’ Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus told a televised press conference from Geneva.
‘Global stocks of masks and respirators are now insufficient to meet the needs of WHO and our partners.’
Dr Tedros’s announcement came just two weeks after Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt toured the national medical stockpile, posting pictures on Twitter to reassure the Australian public that with 20 million single-use masks, Australia did not have a shortage.
How bulk supplies of Australia’s face masks, hand sanitisers and other vital medical items were shipped to CHINA as the coronavirus pandemic took hold
Bulk supplies of vital medical items were shipped from Sydney to China at the request of a Beijing-backed property giant as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Australia.
Greenland Group, which manages property developments across the globe with the support of the Chinese government, told employees at its Sydney office to stop their normal work in January.
Instead, they were tasked with sourcing face masks, hand sanitisers, thermometers and other medical items, storing them at their office and shipping them to China.
A whistleblower told The Sydney Morning Herald the exercise was a worldwide effort and continued until the end of February.
‘Basically all employees, the majority of whom are Chinese, were asked to source whatever medical supplies they could,’ the insider said.
‘There were numerous requests from the HR manager and even our direct reporting line [which] prioritised the assisting of the company in gathering these supplies over other work activities.’
Greenland Group told Chinese language media in Australia the company collected three million protective masks, 700,000 hazmat suits and 500,000 pairs of medical gloves during the global effort.
It is unclear how many of those were sourced in Australia.
Greenland Group confirmed the shipments from Sydney to China in a statement to Daily Mail Australia, saying it ‘felt compelled’ to assist ‘in efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus, which had caused a shortage of critical medical supplies in China’.
The supplies were ‘dispatched to China, which at that time was the epicentre of the outbreak’, the statement read.
‘As such, Greenland Group initiated a drive for medical supplies, and provided accommodation services for front-line medical staff in China via the company’s hotel group.
‘Greenland Australia supported Greenland Group’s initiative by arranging for medical supplies to be dispatched to China. Again, it should be noted that this proactive response occurred in late January and early February, at a time when the worldwide spread of the virus, and all response efforts, were focused on China.’
Photos show pallet-loads of medical items stored in company-stamped boxes at Greenland’s Sydney offices and at various airports.
Sherwood Lou, Greenland Australia’s managing director, shared photos of the supplies on February 13.
He wrote at the time: ‘The second batch of non-contact forehead thermometers will soon take off to China! Coronavirus situation is serious, Chinese people, local and overseas, are trying their best, fighting together to combat the virus.’
Greenland Group told Chinese language media in Australia the company collected three million protective masks, 700,000 hazmat suits and 500,000 pairs of medical gloves during the global effort
The company has sold a billion dollars worth of property in Sydney and Melbourne since its 2013 arrival to Australia.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government is scrambling to produce enough medical supplies as confirmed local coronavirus cases surge to more than 2,400 – and doubling about every three days.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said a ‘war production unit’ had been convened at the weekend to prepare Australia.
The Federal Government is scrambling to produce enough medical supplies as confirmed local coronavirus cases surge to more than 2,400. Pictured: Two young women in face masks walk along Circular Quay in Sydney on Wednesday
‘We have four companies that have indicated that they are willing to make ventilators and will be seeking approvals which have been given at light speed,’ he told Nine News on Monday.
‘At the same time, we are working on imports and procurements, large volumes of masks have arrived over the course of the weekend, additional volumes of testing kits.’
Australia has only one face mask factory in operation, The Med-Con in Shepparton, a regional area of northern Victoria.
It is facing an unprecedented demand to make face masks and hospital gowns during the crisis.
Health Minister Greg Hunt toured a national medical supply warehouse on January 24, saying Australia had 20 million single-use face masks. The WHO announced a global shortage of personal protective equipment on February 7
Pictured: Australian-based Chinese property company Risland shipped 90 tonnes worth of vital medical supplies to Wuhan
Risland made an online post last month that declared their support for Wuhan and showed workers inside a warehouse packed with thousands of boxes of protective clothing (pictured)
Sydney anaesthetist Robert Hackett risked his job to speak out about the protective equipment shortage now facing frontline medical staff in major Australian hospitals.
As 60 Minutes reporter Liz Hayes demonstrated how all the wall-mounted dispensers were empty of hand sanitiser, Dr Hackett told of how staff were having to reuse single-use masks while others had no masks at all.
‘The equipment we do have is pretty much not much more than a plastic flimsy gown at times … we’re desperate to get these things on the frontline as soon as possible,’ he said.
‘Many of my colleagues have purchased hooded gowns and other bits of equipment from Bunnings and have even pleaded for other people to go to Bunnings and buy these bits of equipment – I mean we are desperate, none of us ever signed up for this.’
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said on Wednesday April 1 that the government had banned the export of essential medical supplies such as masks, gloves, gowns, goggles, visors or alcohol wipes, as well as hand sanitiser.
Anyone caught exporting the goods may face up to five years’ jail under the new amendment to the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations 1958 Act called ‘COVID-19 Human Biosecurity Emergency’.