Forensic media investigations by Fairfax Media and ABC TV’s Four Corners have uncovered multi-faceted interference by the Chinese Communist Party in Australia.
This includes propaganda and censorship in much of this nation’s Chinese language media as well as even more troubling channels of interference through political donations, intimidation of dissident voices and the establishment and mobilisation of pro-Beijing organisations on Australian soil.
…This is in addition to a pervasive but predictable espionage effort including human and cyber intelligence.
All nations project the “soft” power of attraction, of winning the debate. Australia should welcome and facilitate Chinese voices in a transparent and evidence-based contest of ideas about this country’s future.
But a picture is emerging of excessive influence through money, censorship and coercion. This is neither the soft power of free expression nor the hard power of military force.
Instead it is the sharp power of intrusive influence, including through the strategic granting then apparent withholding of political funds.
The reported Chinese Communist Party efforts to distort Australia’s sovereignty go beyond what is acceptable in an even vaguely rules-based global system. It breaches historic norms of states’ non-interference in each other’s affairs, which China’s leaders say they support.
…Whether those providing the cash are seeking simply status or something else, their donations are damaging what should be constructive, respectful and beneficial relations between Australia and China.
Yes, you read it right. Only in the Australian and Kazakhstani parliaments would it be possible:
The government has used a question to Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop to highlight Labor Senator Sam Dastyari’s links to Chinese donors. Ms Bishop said that while the government had always confronted diplomatic challenges, such as China’s conduct in the South China Sea, with a clear, consistent policy position the same could not be said of all members of the Labor Party.
“In fact, we now know that Senator Dastyari’s about face on the South China Sea had a price tag attached to it, indeed a reported $400,000 was all it took for Senator Dastyari to trash Labor’s official foreign policy position,” she said.
“During the 2016 election, when Labor’s then defence spokesman, Senator Conroy, stood at the National Press Club and outlined Labor’s foreign policy on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, only to be publicly contradicted only hours later by the then Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Sam Dastyari.
“Members will recall how Senator Dastyari called a press conference at the Commonwealth parliamentary offices in Sydney and he stood there before the Australian flag, before an election with the Australian Commonwealth code of arms, next to his Chinese benefactor who also stood at a lectern with an Australian coat of arms and he publicly contradicted Labor’s official foreign policy for a reported $400,000.”
Ms Bishop chastised Bill Shorten for giving Senator Dastyari a “slap on the wrist” and sending him to the backbench for a couple of months. “Senator Sam Dastyari is now back in a leadership position in the Labor Party,” she said. “This Leader of the Opposition sold out our national interest.”
New revelations today:
The NSW Labor Party received donations totalling at least $120,000 for last year’s federal election campaign from companies with links to a Chinese-born businessman selected to run as a party Senate candidate.
Four companies either run by or connected to “Simon” Shuo Zhou, a Sydney-based gold trader with strong political affiliations to a pro-Beijing lobby organisation, made separate donations to the NSW ALP over a 24-hour period just a week after the July 2 election was called.
Mr Zhou, given seventh spot on Labor’s Senate ticket in NSW last year, was also named in an Administrative Appeals Tribunal case as being connected to a company involved in a $143 million gold-trading scandal that resulted in the Australian Taxation Office demanding $20m in unpaid taxes and penalties.
And:
Labor is reeling after an adviser resigned amid revelations that the party bankrolled its 2016 federal election campaign with the help of up to $140,000 in donations from gold dealers linked to a multimillion-dollar tax scam.
The resignation from NSW Labor of rising star, 2016 Senate candidate and gold trader Simon Zhou, comes as respected ALP MP Anthony Byrne called for a full parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference and donations, with public hearings by the joint parliamentary intelligence committee, of which he is deputy chair.
Too right. It appears so widespread that the Coalition can’t even find a clean pair of hands to do the attacking. Julie Bishop has been linked to other Chinese donors. Recall from last year:
Chinese businessmen with links to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have donated half a million dollars to the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party during the past two years, political disclosures reveal.
All the donors have links to the Chinese government, and the vast bulk of the money was given by companies with no apparent business interests in WA. Ms Bishop, the leading federal member of the party in that state, has singled out each of the three key donors for praise.
Several of the donations have been obscured by the channelling of funds via executives or related companies, or by the donors’ failure to disclose them to the Australian Electoral Commission, in apparent breach of Commonwealth law.
…In 2014-15, billionaire Chau Chak Wing’s Hong Kong Kingson Investment Ltd gave $200,000 to the WA Liberal Party. The donation is listed on the party’s disclosure to the AEC, but the company made no disclosure.
The controversial tycoon has given millions to Liberal, National and Labor parties over several decades. His Kingold conglomerate has expanded from property development to hospitality, education, finance, health, media and culture that extends “from Guangzhou, Beijing and Hong Kong to Sydney and Brisbane in Australia,” according to its website. No business interests in WA are listed.
Why is the foreign minister so popular? Lowy Institute analyst, Rory Medcalf, describes the problem:
Makes one wonder whether there is a clean pair of hands at all in the parliament that could have launched the attack.
