Amusing stuff today from CCP foghorn, The Global Times:
Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Friday sharply criticized China for launching cyber attacks against Australia and interfering in Australia’s internal affairs, drawing a strong rebuke from China.
It is an old trick of certain radical Australian politicians to make such groundless attacks against China. However, as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s administration has softened its stance toward China, Dutton’s words appeared harsh.
It is worth noting that Dutton just concluded his visit to the US. Based on past experience, Dutton’s abrupt attack is likely to be influenced by Washington. If the minister does care about the national interests of his country, he has no reason to provoke China and impede China-Australia ties.
No maritime disputes and historical grievances can be found between China and Australia. Instead, the two countries’ economic structures complement each other. China has been Australia’s largest trading partner for years. Bilateral trade reached more than $120 billion in 2018, which clearly matters far more to Australia than China.
These facts are obvious. We are still puzzled why Australia had an anti-China sentiment and made some specific anti-China moves over the last two years.
To some extent, people like Dutton have damaged China-Australia relations. For Australian right-wing politicians, Washington is even more important than Canberra. If the US shows discontent at China, they may immediately follow suit. The extreme public opinion, which has circulated for a long time, has poisoned Australia’s attitude toward China. Australian politicians benefit from pandering to such a distorted atmosphere and developing close relations with the US.
This explains Dutton’s unreasonable comments on China – he places personal political interests above Australia’s national interests. He attacks China to earn political favors, but he hurts Australia.
Due to Australia’s unilateral destruction, China-Australia relations have been in a stalemate for three years. Australia has paid a great price for this. In 2018, China’s investments in Australia fell by nearly half compared to 2017. It is unrealistic for Australia to hope to keep earning money from China while hurting the latter in words and deeds.
Recent data suggested Australia’s economic growth had fallen to its lowest level in a decade. If Canberra wants to boost its economy, it will have to rely on China. It is impossible that Morrison is not aware of that. After he assumed office, he has been avoiding provoking China and offered some gestures of goodwill toward Beijing. As Chinese people are still suspicious of Morrison, Dutton’s accusation against China was not unexpected, but has put Morrison’s efforts in vain.
In China-Australia ties, Canberra is the one that has always been anxious, while Beijing has been calm and has the capacity to be so. Australia needs to spend more efforts to win back the trust from the Chinese people as well as promoting the thawing of China-Australia relations. Preventing troublemakers like Dutton is a challenge Australia is confronting.
Or, at least, it would be amusing if Labor apologists didn’t agree:
Veteran Labor senator Kim Carr has supported collaboration with Chinese researchers and launched an assault on “cold-war warriors”, “Sinophobes” and “hawks within the defence and security establishments”, as splits emerge inside the ALP over its approach to Australia’s relationship with Beijing.
…Senator Carr, a left-wing factional warrior, warned in his article in The Tocsin that “hawks are being highly selective, indeed quite arbitrary, in their focus” on China.
“After all, it is not the only authoritarian state with a record of human rights abuses whose students visit this country and undertake research in PhD programs,” Senator Carr wrote.
“Yet, strangely, nothing is said about the students who come here from the Middle East or Africa. Apparently, it is only the PRC whose treatment of dissidents and minorities is cause for concern.”
Senator Carr also criticised “Sinophobes” for failing to acknowledge that there was “more than one state with the technological capacity to threaten Australia’s cyber security”.
But is there more than one state using it? Plus bribing our officials, militarising sea lanes and the Pacific, threatening Hong Kong freedoms and seeking to dissolve ANZUS?
Nor is any other than nation doing the following absolute shocker, at UQ:
The Chinese Government has co-funded at least four courses at the University of Queensland (UQ), including one on China’s role in “strengthening” responses to “global security challenges”, such as human rights, “mass atrocities prevention” and “counter-terrorism”.
UQ’s courses in Chinese policy, music and language were developed in partnership with its Confucius Institute, one of 13 such Chinese Government-funded soft power centres in Australia, which run language and culture classes in universities and schools and have been accused of being vehicles for Chinese propaganda.
The revelations come as UQ faces calls to review its lucrative deals with the Chinese Government, after a Four Corners — Background Briefing investigation last night revealed its Confucius Institute had veered into curriculum development and honorary staff appointments.
The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Peter Høj, was until recently a senior consultant to Beijing’s global Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and a member of its powerful governing council, which is responsible for more than 500 institutes operating in universities and schools across the world.
The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Peter Høj, was until recently a senior consultant to and member of Beijing’s governing Council of Confucius Institute Headquarters, which is responsible for more than 500 institutes in universities and schools across the world.
Four Corners has learned that the UQ Confucius Institute co-funded credit-bearing university courses including one in the Graduate Centre in Governance and International Affairs, called “China in a Changing World”, which was offered as recently as 2016.
The official course description says it “aims to provide students with a deeper understanding of China’s global engagement in a changing world” and “critically examine China’s international policies and diplomacy”.
“As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and major world economy with extensive overseas development projects, China is an integral player in global efforts to address some of the most pressing security challenges in the world today,” it says.
“[The course] will … examine the impact of China on broader efforts to strengthen institutional and collective response to new security challenges.”
The UQ Confucius Institute also contributed funding to courses in translation and interpreting, music, and one in Chinese policy called “Understanding China”, which was developed in partnership with the School of Economics.
Four Corners revealed last night the “Understanding China” course was designed by a UQ economics lecturer who had recently received an “Understanding China” fellowship from the Chinese Government body called Hanban, which runs the institutes internationally.
Four Corners has learned that the UQ Senate decided in May that Confucius Institute funding of university courses should cease.
A UQ spokeswoman said: “The Confucius Institute and its academics have not been involved in the design or management of these courses.”
Professor Høj told last night’s Four Corners, “having courses concerning China is totally appropriate”.
“It’s very appropriate for universities such as ours to educate our students about Chinese politics, Chinese economics because we live in a region where China will be the largest economy in the world very soon, the largest trading partner for Australia,” he said.
“Is it appropriate that a Confucius Institute devises courses? No, it’s not, but they don’t. They’re not involved in the design of the course. They’re not involved in the delivery.”
UQ Confucius director nominated Consul-General for controversial role
Four Corners also revealed last night that the director of UQ’s Confucius Institute personally nominated China’s Consul-General in Brisbane, Xu Jie, as an adjunct professor — the fifth such appointment of a Chinese diplomat at the university.
Shortly after his appointment in July, Dr Xu Jie was criticised by Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne for praising the “spontaneous patriotic behaviour” of Chinese students, some of whom clashed violently with anti-Beijing protesters.
Dr Xu remains an adjunct professor at the university.
From 2013, vice-chancellor Professor Høj was an unpaid senior consultant to Hanban and in 2017, he was appointed a member of the governing Council of Confucius Institute Headquarters.
Professor Høj stood down from Hanban after receiving legal advice late last year he would be required to sign up to Australia’s new Foreign Interference Transparency Scheme.
When asked on last night’s Four Corners whether he was confident the Chinese Communist Party had not tried to influence him during his five years in unpaid roles with the headquarters,
Senior security adviser to the Federal Government, Ross Babbage, told Four Corners a complete review was needed at UQ in response to revelations of its involvement in funding the “Understanding China” course.
“I think that course needs to be reviewed independently — where the materials have come from, what the content is, what’s there and what isn’t there, and whether it’s appropriate,” he said.
“Also, there’s a need for the University of Queensland and other Australian universities to exert more control over who’s allowed on campus to participate in a range of activities [including] the local consulate in Brisbane.
“There needs to be a better way of controlling access to those people.”
Author and academic Professor Clive Hamilton, who has spent years researching Chinese Communist Party interference at Australian universities, echoed Mr Babbage’s concerns.
“Why would we permit a foreign authoritarian government through a Confucius Institute to play a role in determining the curriculum to be taught on an Australian campus? I find that bizarre,” he said.
The UQ Confucius Institute’s agreement with the university gives Hanban authority over teaching standards, but that agreement is currently under review.
The NSW Education Department recently decided to shut down its Confucius Institute, concluding there was a risk of a perception of foreign influence on department staff.
When asked on Four Corners whether he was confident the Chinese Communist Party had not tried to influence him during his five years in unpaid roles with the headquarters, Professor Høj said: “I’m very confident that I haven’t been influenced.”
Labor is somewhere between suicidal and treasonous getting caught on the wrong side of this. I guess that’s the power of corporate memory.
