This was announced at an Australia China Business Council lunch in Melbourne yesterday by Han Ruixiang, the bank's general manager in Australia.

He said the new mining tax "will affect Chinese companies investing in Australia".

"We have already started to perceive some unwillingness," he added.

The big five Chinese banks would all be operating in Australia soon, he said, with Bank of Communications opening a branch in Sydney on Monday and Agriculture Bank about to submit its licence application, while China Development Bank had a "working group that migrates a lot between here and China".

Mr Han said ICBC had written almost $15 billion of business since it opened its first Australian branch in Sydney three years ago.