The Federation for a Democratic China (FDC) would like to make a submission to the inquiry into the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2017.

The FDC represents Chinese-Australians committed to democracy and the democratic values of Australia. It was founded in the wake of the 1989 Beijing Tiananmen Square Massacre. The protest movement aimed to end the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship and set up a constitutional democracy in China. The FDC remains committed to those values.

The CCP survived the 1989 political crisis, but was alarmed to witness the downfall of the Communist camp through the dissolution of the Eastern European Bloc and Soviet Union 1989 – 1991.

From this historical moment, the US-led western democracies wrongly adopted a policy of aid to boost the economy of the Communist China in a wishful thinking that Beijing would be tamed and follow the world trend towards democracy as its economy developed, following the footsteps of South Korea and Taiwan.

Delinking human rights from trade, initiated by the Keating government, and entering into the WTO under the auspice of Clinton Administration in 2001, were gracious offers by the West to the CCP, which capitalized on this golden opportunity to achieve substantial economic growth and strengthen its national capacity in the name of “Peaceful Rise”.

Since then, covert and overt interference and influence operations by the PRC have been implemented all over the world, and are now in full swing. Australia is one of the Western democracies to be targeted.

Australia is a free and open democracy, but unfortunately the freedom and democracy of Australia has been abused and misused. Since 1986, Australia allowed a large wave of Chinese nationals to immigrate to Australia. About 45,000 Chinese nationals obtained permanent residency and later citizenship as a result of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

The PRC worked effectively on this enlarged Chinese community deeply connected with mainland China to win them over through diverse means, exploiting the freedom of association and press in Australia to infiltrate, monopolize and even control the Chinese language media and most of the associations with ethnic Chinese background.

Most Chinese communities lawfully registered as associations accept the guidance and control of the Chinese Embassy and Consulates across Australia because of the powerful strength of China as a nation. However, Australia has not been vigilant in preventing this control, indifferently allowing Chinese-born Australians to be under the influence of the PRC by neglecting the Australian values of freedom of speech, and free from foreign powers.

Taking advantage of the free press, the PRC has ensured the Chinese-language media in Australia fully complies with its political purpose. Major newspapers in Chinese language circulated in Australia are heavily influenced, controlled or even manipulated by the Chinese government through its Embassy or Consulates. The Chinese government gained its control through its agents, who have close commercial or political ties with the PRC, injecting their capital to gain dominance. Except for the Falun Gong operated Chinese language media, no Chinese language media, such as newspapers, radio, TV and websites, can now express independently their own voices and opinions in relation with China. Since about 2000, the Chinese-language media in Australia no longer accepts advertisements for the commemoration of the Tiananmen Square Incident, other than Falun Gong media.

The issue of Beijing’s infiltration and manipulation of Australia and the West is the dagger pointing to the democratic system. It has been taking place for a long time while the West has been turning a deaf ear to it.

The PRC and its agents generously offer financial assistance to Australian universities in order to gain a tremendous impact on the Australian academic community. The concern is that is there are fewer and fewer China study centres in Australian universities capable of retaining their academic freedom and resisting the lure of Beijing. Are Confucius Institutes in Australian universities for academic exchanges or is there another hidden agenda? In 2008 Professor Jocelyn Chey addressing to the Sydney Institute on Chinese Soft Power – Cultural Diplomacy and Confucius Institutes, was wary of their real nature. The Institutes are literally an ideological exportation of Beijing to the West.

The Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), presided over by former Foreign Minister of Australia Bob Carr and funded by the Chinese businessman Mr. Huang Xiang Mo, caused some academicians at the University of Technology Sydney to express grave concern about its “academic neutrality and independence” because, by expounding the PRC’s political stance, it acts more as a propaganda machine.

Both Confucius Institutes and ACRI are not normal academic institutes; they are in fact promoting the political strategies of Beijing in the cloak of academia.

The PRC is well aware of loopholes in Western democracies, especially as they have dropped their guard and vigilance against Communist China since the end of the Cold War. As a result, the PRC push its political infiltration and influence. According to the revelation of fugitive business man Guo Wengui, the PRC has been long carrying out covertly a hidden Blue-Gold-Yellow scheme, i.e. the "Blue" is the network monitoring political and business tycoons in Taiwan, Hong Kong and West democracies, "Gold" is to spend huge sums of money to buy them over, "Yellow" is sexual seducement and control. Who in Australia has fallen into this conspiracy trap?

The PRC’s blatant infiltration and influence operations in the West are the inevitable result of the weakness and appeasement of West democracies. The PRC continues these kinds of operations on an inch-by-inch basis. It was the political mistake committed by the United States, which led Western democracies along the wrong path, with Australia following. The Cold War ended in 1990s but the ideological confrontation between democracy and autocracy is far from over. However, the West believes it is over. The West has allowed itself to be deceived by the PRC. The PRC infringes upon the West with its all-round national capacity in the realms of commerce, media, academia, and so on, while the West turns a blind eye and deaf ear, which in return encourages the PRC to expand its espionage and interference operations.

The PRC has changed the policy of keeping a low profile, to hide her capacities, and begun to adopt a strong offensive stance. This should be a wake-up call to the sleepy West. It is never too late to mend the fold even after some of the sheep have been lost. By introducing the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2017, the damages of infiltration and interference to Australia on the part of the PRC should be remedied and rectified. The United States has passed a foreign agents bill and Australia will accordingly follow. The Federation for a Democratic China has long-awaited these laws.

The FDC welcomes and supports the Prime Minister’s statement that Australian has stood up, defending the principles and values of Australia. Only when the Australian government and both Houses of Parliament take the infiltration and control of the PRC seriously and pass the legislation can all Australians unanimously resist the infiltration from Beijing so that the security of Australia can be defended and the values of Australia be protected.

Chin Jin
Chairman
Federation for a Democratic China
15 February 2018