David vs. Goliath

Turnbull says Australia will stand up to China

By Christopher Knaus and Tom Phillips in Beijing

Malcolm Turnbull has spoken of China when introducing the foreign interference legislation to parliament.

The Australian prime minister has hit back at China over the issue of Chinese interference, speaking Mandarin and invoking a famous Chinese slogan to declare Australia will “stand up” against meddling in its national affairs.
Beijing issued a stinging rebuke of Turnbull on Friday, saying his allegations of Communist party interference had poisoned the atmosphere of bilateral relations and undermined mutual trust.
But Turnbull stood his ground on Saturday, using strong language to reject the criticism and maintain there was evidence of Chinese interference. 

Turnbull said Labor senator Sam Dastyari – who has twice stepped down from the Senate over China-related controversies – was a “classic case”.
Switching between Mandarin and English, Turnbull then said: “Modern China was founded in 1949 with these words: ‘The Chinese people have stood up’. It was an assertion of sovereignty, it was an assertion of pride.”
“And we stand up and so we say, the Australian people stand up.”
Beijing has lodged a “serious complaint” with Australia over the allegations of Chinese interference.
During a regular briefing on Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressed shock at Turnbull’s remarks during the parliamentary debate on Australia’s new Chinese interference laws this week.

Coalition to ban Chinese donations to political parties and activist groups

Turnbull introduced the foreign interference laws to parliament on Thursday. 

The laws, among other things, ban foreign donations and require former politicians, executives, and lobbyists who work for foreign interests, to register if they intend to attempt to influence Australian politics.

Under the proposed legislation, it would become a crime for a person to act on behalf of a foreign principal to influence a political or governmental process in a manner that is either covert or involves deception.
Turnbull spoke of China while introducing the legislation to the lower house.
“Media reports have suggested that the Chinese Communist party has been working to covertly interfere with our media, our universities and even the decisions of elected representatives right here in this building,” he said. 

"We take these reports very seriously."
China is Australia’s largest trading partner and its biggest source of foreign political funds. Australian law has never distinguished between donors from Australia and overseas.

Beijing’s emphatic push-back reflects an increasingly forceful – some say hectoring – posture from China and Chinese state media towards foreign governments or journalists who dare to question its actions or policies.
Foreign leaders, including former British prime minister David Cameron, who have met the Dalai Lama have been punished with lengthy diplomatic freezes. 

The Norwegian government faced an almost complete suspension of diplomatic relations after the 2010 Nobel prize was handed to Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who recently became the first Nobel peace prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky died at the hands of the Nazis.
Experts say Chinese efforts to browbeat its international critics have become more aggressive in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012. 

In October, Xi, now widely seen as China’s most powerful leader since Mao, kicked off his second term in office proclaiming the start of a new era in which China was a “mighty power” at the centre of world affairs .
This week one Communist party-run tabloid attacked “the superiority and narcissism of the Canadian media” after one Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail, referred to the country as an “absolute dictatorship”. 

Last year Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, expressed “dissatisfaction” with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, after he launched an angry tirade against a Canadian journalist who had challenged him on human rights.

On Saturday, the Australian reported that Asio had identified about 10 ­political candidates at state and local government elections whom it believed had close ties to Chinese intelligence services. 

Sec­urity officials were assessing this as a deliberate strategy by Beijing to wield influence through Australian politics.

Australia's Chinese fifth column: Bob Carr (L), Huang Xiangmo (R).

Those whom security services identified as having close ties to Chinese intelligence ser­vices and the Communist party were candidates at local government elections, but concerns had been raised about state and federal figures as well, it said. 

“The Weekend Australian ­understands that at least one of those candidates successfully ­obtained elected office, and ­remains there today,” it added.

On Saturday, the Labor MP Pat Conroy accused the government of leaking intelligence information about Chinese influence to damage the opposition.
“You just have to look at who leaked the supposed Asio briefing to the press,” Conroy told the ABC. “It has come from someone from the government – the intelligence agencies would never do that – someone from the government has leaked classified intelligence in an attempt to embarrass the Labor party.”
The Liberal MP Craig Kelly said foreign governments would not be able to trust Australia if Dastyari were part of the government. 

“How can the US and how can the UK be prepared to share sensitive intelligence information if they think that Dastyari could potentially sit in the government?” he told the ABC.