Via The Australian:
As the government prepares to introduce new laws aimed at cracking down on foreign espionage, one of the foremost experts on the Chinese Communist Party’s activities in Australia, Chongyi Feng, said the looming crackdown had not gone unnoticed in Beijing.
…Professor Feng, who teaches Chinese studies at University of Technology Sydney, made headlines this year when he was held by Chinese security officials because of his often critical stance on China’s overseas activities.
He said his sources had told him some Chinese organisations had begun minimising their public links to Beijing.
Some had deleted their profiles from social media, Professor Feng told The Australian. “The Chinese authorities and those associations know that something is coming from that legislation,” he said.
Professor Feng said more than 90 per cent of the dozens of Chinese community groups across Australia were effectively controlled by Chinese authorities, usually through local consulate offices. Such organisations could expect to be targeted under the new regime, which will also ban foreign political donations.
To assume that this is the end of it would be naive in the extreme.
