Barnett to appeal to China on Oakajee WA Premier Colin Barnett will head to China, with the stalled $6bn Oakajee port top of the agenda. CHINA will be asked to rescue Western Australia's mothballed $6 billion Oakajee port, when Premier Colin Barnett again heads to Asia next week. The ambitious plan for a new deep water port at Oakajee, north of Geraldton - one of Mr Barnett's pet projects - stalled after Japanese backer Mitsubishi scaled back its funding last year. Now Mr Barnett will appeal directly to China to become the major backer in the project, and leaves Perth for talks on Saturday. "I know many people would say 'Oakajee is finished, give up', but I will not give up," Mr Barnett said on Friday. The Japanese interests have essentially taken a step back, but I'm hoping the Chinese interests will take a step forward. I hope we can spark up their interest and bring China more formally into the project and perhaps even lead the project. More than $700 million has been promised for the port by state and federal governments. But Mr Barnett said China's interest in Australian developments was on the wane. Australia as a whole has to be careful. I sense that China's appetite for investment and trade within Australia has just come off the boil a little bit," Mr Barnett said. They're certainly looking at more in South America and Africa, and we have to work hard both at a state and federal level to maintain that interest.