Via John Fitzgerald is emeritus professor in the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. His books include Big white lie: Chinese Australians in white Australia and Awakening China: politics, culture and class in the Nationalist Revolution:
As Australia is compelled to engage a more confrontational China, there’s a risk that political commentary and media reporting on China’s influence and interference operations in Australia could affect Chinese-Australian communities adversely.
The problem is twofold, as I explain in my new report for ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre. On one side is the Chinese party-state. Agencies of the Chinese Communist Party misrepresent and distort Australian commentary and reporting about the party’s conduct at home and abroad, its interference operations in Australia, and legitimate Australian responses to its conduct and operations. The aim is to divert or silence criticism of the party, disarm critical voices in the Chinese-Australian community, and drive a wedge between communities within Australia.
