Australia Cancels Residency for Wealthy Chinese Donor Huang Xiangmo Linked to Communist Party

By Damien Cave

Huang Xiangmo in Sydney, Australia, last year. His donations to Australian politicians were linked to Beijing.

SYDNEY, Australia — Australia has canceled the residency of a wealthy political donor tied to the Chinese government, officials confirmed Wednesday, denying his citizenship application and stranding him overseas in a widening conflict with Beijing over its efforts to influence Australian politics.
The donor, Huang Xiangmo, is a successful developer who has lived in Sydney since 2011 and who has donated millions of dollars across the Australian political spectrum in recent years. 

He has done so while leading organizations tied to the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party that promotes Chinese foreign policy abroad and works with various groups inside China.
Huang’s office did not respond to requests for comment, and his whereabouts were unknown.

Experts said that keeping him out of Australia reflected deepening global skepticism about China — and a tougher stance toward its proxies.
“It’s a very punitive measure,” said Euan Graham, executive director of La Trobe Asia, a regional research and engagement arm of La Trobe University in Melbourne. 

“It’s a signal of the pushback against Chinese interference — the government remains committed to that despite whatever softer line there may have been in the official diplomatic relationship.”
Some experts cautioned that it was still not clear exactly why Huang was turned down for citizenship; his permanent residency was canceled for a range of reasons, including character grounds, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, which first reported the citizenship rejection.
What is clear is that Huang, a billionaire property developer who founded Yuhu Group Australia in 2012, has become the most visible target of concern and debate about Chinese influence in Australian politics.
His political gifts totaling at least 2.7 million Australian dollars, or about $1.95 million, have gone to both major parties. 

And while the contributions were perfectly legal (Australia lacks a ban on foreign donations), his efforts have been increasingly viewed with suspicion.
Records shows that between 2014 and 2016, Huang made more than a dozen large donations, including $50,000 to the Liberal Party of Victoria and $55,000 paid to the opposition Labor Party for a seat at a boardroom lunch with the party’s leader, Bill Shorten.

Sam Dastyari, a former senator, resigned in 2017 after remarks defending China’s aggressive military posture in the South China Sea, comments at odds with his party’s position.

He was also at the center of a political scandal involving a young Labor Party senator, Sam Dastyari, an aggressive fund-raiser who resigned in 2017 after he made comments at a news conference defending China’s aggressive military posture in the South China Sea — comments that contradicted his own party’s opposition to China’s actions there.
He was invited to the event by Huang, who stood by him as he spoke.
Huang also financed a "think tank", the Australia-China Relations Institute, that was run by Bob Carr, alias Beijing Bob, a reliably pro-China voice who was Australia’s foreign minister from 2012 to 2013.
And Huang’s ties to organizations affiliated with Beijing are well documented. 

He has led several organizations that work closely with the Chinese Consulate, including the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, which experts describe as a United Front group aiming to influence foreign policy abroad and the ethnic Chinese diaspora.
“Australia has woken up to the threat posed by authoritarian states and their attempts to influence and undermine our democratic institutions,” said Andrew Hastie, a Liberal Party lawmaker who is chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. 

“We are pivoting to protect our sovereignty,” he said.
The process, however, is far from over. 

Huang has the right to appeal the decision by Australia’s Home Affairs Department, and there will be challenging questions ahead about whether his family can stay in Australia, and about his assets.
His companies own and manage several properties across Australia worth tens of millions of dollars.
The rejection also comes at an uncertain time in Australian-Chinese relations. 

Last month, the Chinese authorities detained a well-known writer and former Chinese official with Australian citizenship, Yang Hengjun, after he flew to China from New York.
He is still being held on charges of “endangering national security,” making him the third foreigner to have been detained on that ominous charge since December.
In a few weeks, on March 1, Australia’s new espionage and foreign interference laws will also take effect, suggesting to some that this will be the first of several actions to disclose and resist Beijing’s more covert attempts to shape politics.
“There may be a sense of trying to get things in a row,” said Mr. Graham. 

“This is obviously a big signal that underlines the commitment to doing that.”

Chinese Peril

China furious, as Australians unite on barriers against its interference
By Michelle Grattan
Given Bill Shorten's national security stance, and the usual bipartisan functioning of the intelligence and security committee, it is not surprising that agreement has been reached on the bill. 

The Government couldn't have had a more appropriate week for the release of the report from the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, which has examined its legislation to counter Chinese interference.
Bipartisan agreement in the report, tabled Thursday, on the 60 recommendations, covering minor and more substantive amendments, has paved the way for a bill that has infuriated Chinese authorities to clear Parliament within weeks.
A couple of current instances have highlighted how China engages in unsubtle pressure.
Qantas confirmed it would bow to China over how the carrier refers to Taiwan in its advertising and on its website.

This followed a demand to three dozen airlines that they make clear that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are part of China.
The Government was understanding of Qantas's position, accepting it had little choice.
On a very different front, former foreign minister Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob, an outspoken friend of China, who heads the Australia China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, was unable to get visas for journalists (including from Fairfax and News Corp) to go on one of the sponsored visits to China he hosts.
Bob says "the assumption is that [this] is part of the freeze China is applying to bilateral visits" — a freeze that has hit ministers.
Then there is the much-publicised controversy about Facebook sharing user data with, among many companies, several Chinese ones including Huawei, a telecommunications-equipment giant that the Australian Government has not permitted to tender for National Broadband Network contracts.
We're well past the optimistic days when we believed it could be all upside in our relationship with China, which has over the years delivered an economic bonanza for Australia.

Turnbull, like Rudd, tough-minded on China
Trade Minister Steve Ciobo tries to shrug off problems as minor irritants, but presumably that's just his job. 

Others in the Government have become more forthright.
It's notable that of recent prime ministers, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, both very knowledgeable about China, have been the most openly tough-minded towards it. 

Before becoming PM, each was regarded as China-friendly.
Of the various causes of current tensions in the relationship, the legislation against foreign interference is on the top shelf (together with Australia's stand on the South China Sea).
The purpose of the legislation, unveiled late last year, is to "comprehensively reform key offences dealing with threats to national security, particularly those posed by foreign principals".
Among its provisions, it "introduces new foreign interference offences targeting covert, deceptive or threatening actions by foreign actors who intend to influence Australia's democratic or government processes or to harm Australia".
At its core, what this legislation does is to criminalise foreign interference that is one step below espionage. 

ASIO has always been able to investigate such interference, but it hasn't actually been a criminal offence.
While the Government goes out of its way to say the legislation is not aimed at any individual country, everyone knows China is in its sights. 

As is Russia, after the experience in the United States and elsewhere.

ASIO warned of 'unprecedented' foreign activity
Duncan Lewis, head of ASIO, emphasised the foreign threat in evidence to Senate estimates last month, describing the current scale of foreign intelligence activity against Australian interests as "unprecedented".
"Foreign actors covertly attempt to influence and shape the views of members of the Australian public, the Australian media, officials in the Australian Government and members of the diaspora communities here in Australia," he told the hearing.
"Foreign states maintain an enduring interest in a range of strategically important commercial, political, economic, defence, security, foreign policy and diaspora issues," he said.

Clarity on 'espionage', 'sabotage' and 'interference'
Where possible, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten tries to stick like glue to the Government on national security issues, for reasons of politics as well as substance. 

Given this, and the usual bipartisan functioning of the intelligence and security committee, it is not surprising that agreement has been reached on a refined version of the bill.
Many of the changes, as Attorney-General Christian Porter noted, are to definitions and drafting — which doesn't make them unimportant.
These include clarifying that "prejudice to national security" has to involve an element of harm, not just embarrassment. 

There'll be clarification of "espionage", "sabotage", "political violence" and "foreign interference".
Changes will reduce the maximum penalties for the new secrecy offences, and require the attorney-general's consent for a prosecution under them.
An amendment will ensure the staff of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security are properly protected.

Journalism defence beefed up
The changes will give greater protection to the media, expanding the public interest defence for journalists, and making it clear that editors, legal advisers and administrative staff will all be covered by the journalism defence.
Before a journalist can be prosecuted over reporting classified documents, the head of the relevant agency will have to certify that they were properly classified, and the attorney-general must consent to the legal action.
The Government, accepting some criticisms of the legislation, itself put forward certain amendments.
The committee — which is still examining an accompanying bill to set up a register of those working on behalf of foreign governments and other interests — said that after three years there should be a review of the operation of key parts of the foreign influence legislation.
The agreed changes haven't satisfied critics such as the Law Council and Amnesty International. 

But the political deal is now in place.
Meanwhile Mr Porter explicitly cast an eye to coming elections. 

"Activity which is designed to interfere or influence our democratic processes is at its most acute when democratic processes are taking place and that means five by-elections in late July and then the full general election," he said.
The Government, saying it wants the legislation passed before the Parliament rises at the end of June for the winter recess, is preparing for more angry reaction from Beijing.

Australia's Quislings

The Labor Party's China problem
By Nick O'Malley

When Australia’s chief spy, ASIO boss Duncan Lewis, told a Senate estimates hearing last week that Australia faced a greater threat from espionage today than at any time since the Cold War he was careful not to specify which countries might be targeting us.
No one doubts that he was talking about China. 

The senators who were questioning him were undoubtedly talking about China.

Andrew Robb was one of the first Beijing henchmen in Australia

As evidence of Chinese efforts to influence Australian institutions mounts, both major parties have reason for self-reflection.
When he quit his role as an elected representative of the Australian people the Liberal trade minister Andrew Robb walked into an $880,000-a-year job with a billionaire closely aligned to the Chinese Communist Party.
Robb was the architect of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Tony Abbott was among a handful Liberal heavy weights who were embarrassed after they had to return a fistfull of designer watches worth around $250,000 to a visiting Chinese billionaire. 

They thought they were fake, they explained when the story went public.
An ABC investigation last year found that Chinese individuals and companies were the largest foreign donors to the two parties, pouring more than $5.5 million into Labor and Liberal coffers between 2013 and 2015.

Australia's Quisling: Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob, is a pro-Beijing extremist paid by the pro-Beijing think tank, Australia China Relations Institute

But one faction of one party appears to be more conflicted than sections of Australian politics, the Sussex Street machine of the powerful NSW Right.
Sam Dastyari, who quit politics when it was revealed he had taken donations from Chinese businesses and then echoed Chinese government talking points, was a rising star of the faction.
Its most dominant figure is Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob, the former foreign affairs minister and NSW premier now at the centre of the China influence controversy. 

Carr is the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, which was established by Chinese-Australian businessman Huang Xiangmo, the prolific political donor (and a controversial source of funds to Dastyari).
The NSW Labor right’s ties to Chinese businessmen, some of whom have links to the Chinese Communist Party and its arm of international influence, the United Front Work Department, is causing increasing disquiet in the broader party, particularly members from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
In writing this story Fairfax Media spoke to party members as well as figures in national security and intelligence circles who did not want to go on record for political and legal reasons.
But a common view is that the Chinese Communist Party did not specifically target the NSW Labor right -- indeed they have sought to influence both parties and other major Australian institutions -- but that the NSW faction proved to be an unusually fertile ground to seek influence.
Michael Danby, a Victorian Labor right figure said the NSW right was without political ideology and driven by a fierce sense of “whatever it takes” in the accumulation of power and the funds needed secure power.

Similarly Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College, Australian National University, says the NSW right has been “unusually comfortable” with donors in the business community, and in particular those in development circles.

Another security figure noted that the NSW right been a particularly fruitful target for those seeking influence because of the sheer power it wields within the party.
Medcalf believes there is now a background battle going on within Labor over Chinese influence and the NSW right’s ties to figures believed to be involved. 

Danby and Carr have gone public, trading blows over the issue in Fairfax Media this week, with Danby declaring that “Bob Carr is a pro-Beijing extremist paid by the pro-Beijing think tank, Australia China Relations Institute.”
Labor leader Bill Shorten’s Victorian background has so far inoculated him from the controversy, along with other key members of his team, such as foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong.

Medcalf believes that members of the Labor left who might once have had a sentimental sympathy for the CCP are now concerned by China’s increasing authoritarianism. 

Some have resisted criticising the party’s ties with Chinese figures because they fear being labelled as racist. 

This, he says, is an unfair allegation and a propaganda victory for the CCP.

Medcalf believes not only that the threat is real, but the leadership of both parties are well aware that there are more revelations to come.
He believes that a mixture of cynicism and naivety on behalf of some Australian politicians -- particularly in NSW -- gave Chinese government access to levers of power in Australia.
Given the current public debate, he says, none can claim naivety any more.

Australia's Chinese Fifth Column

Beijing Bob enlists Labor in new China influence row
By Nick McKenzie & Nick O'Malley

Chinese agent Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob

Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob, is using ALP senator Kristina Keneally to quiz the prime minister and senior officials about Malcolm Turnbull’s key former adviser on Beijing’s espionage and interference operations in Australia.
Fairfax Media has confirmed that Carr, who heads a think tank created by a Chinese businessman closely connected to Beijing, has asked Senator Keneally to use parliament to find out details of the employment, job title, and contract of government adviser John Garnaut.
Mr Garnaut is a China expert and former Fairfax Media China correspondent who was tasked by the prime minister in August 2016 to conduct a highly classified inquiry with ASIO into Beijing’s clandestine activities in Australia.

China's fifth column: Beijing Bob (L) and Huang Xiangmo (R)

The inquiry, which has never been released, is understood to have examined the activities of Huang Xiangmo, the same Chinese businessman who created Carr’s Australian China Relations Institute, and who separately headed a Sydney lobbying organisation aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.
Carr first suggested in a phone call to Senator Keneally and her office on the evening of February 27 that she use the parliament to ask questions about Mr Garnaut, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

He subsequently asked Ms Keneally on at least one other occasion to use parliament to scrutinise Mr Garnaut’s work.

ASIO chief Duncan Lewis sounds fresh alarm over Chinese interference threat

Carr’s role in pushing for questions to be asked was only disclosed to many in the ALP after Senator Kimberly Kitching quizzed senior bureaucrats on May 22 about Mr Garnaut, relying on questions scripted by Labor staffers.
Labor sources said that Senator Kitching, who could not be reached for comment, was later told by Senator Keneally that Carr had requested the questions be asked.
Two Labor sources who spoke to Senator Kitching said she was “furious”. 

She also revealed to ALP colleagues that Senator Keneally had told her that Carr “will owe you a favour” for having asked the questions.
Carr and Ms Keneally told Fairfax Media that the questions about Mr Garnaut were not written by Carr, with Ms Keneally stating that it was "legitimate to ask questions on notice or in estimates about staffing and contractual arrangements to determine who is providing advice to government". 

Carr said he had never met Senator Kitching.
After he was quizzed by Fairfax Media, Beijing Bob released a statement describing Mr Garnaut as one of ''the leaders of the recent anti-China panic in the Australian media" who should not be "carrying on the campaign" while on the Prime Minister's payroll.
Senator Keneally also placed questions on notice to Mr Turnbull on May 18 that mirror those suggested by Carr and later asked by Senator Kitching.
Ms Keneally has asked in what “capacity” Mr Garnaut worked for the government between September 2015 and June 2017.
“What was his job title, to whom did he report, and what were the dates of his employment,” Ms Keneally asked in her question on notice.
Fairfax Media has confirmed that between August 2016 and September 2017, Mr Garnaut was responsible for what is known in national security circles as the Garnaut-ASIO inquiry.
The inquiry probed efforts by Beijing to influence Australian political parties, academia and the media. 

It is understood to have examined the activities of, among others, Huang Xiangmo, the former financial backer of Carr’s think tank, a Chinese billionaire and big political donor.
Huang previously provided generous funding to the Carr-led ACRI and has boasted about hiring Carr to head the pro-China think tank.
Huang’s relationship with NSW senator Sam Dastyari led to Dastyari’s resignation from parliament in December 2017, paving the way for Senator Keneally to take his spot.
The revelations about Carr come with Labor divided over whether to support reforms proposed by Mr Turnbull to counter what ASIO has described as "unprecedented" levels of Chinese interference in Australia. 

Mr Garnaut helped shape the reforms.

Former Turnbull policy adviser John Garnaut.

Mr Garnaut's involvement in a classified inquiry has been well known in Canberra for 12 months, although the findings of the inquiry have never been released.
In March, Fairfax Media reported Mr Garnaut delivered incendiary testimony about clandestine Chinese government interference operations in Australia before a US Congress national security committee in Washington DC.
Mr Garnaut was described in this story as “Mr Turnbull’s China specialist in 2016 before shifting to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to work on China-related policy."
The story also stated that Mr Garnaut was "a private consultant... assisting western government agencies, including in the US, to deal with influence operations.”
While denying he had any role in pushing Ms Keneally to ask questions about Mr Garnaut, Beijing Bob said on Monday night it was reasonable to scrutinise Mr Garnaut. 

In response to the questions asked by Ms Kitching, the department of prime minister and cabinet said that he was currently contracted as a specialist speechwriter.
Beijing Bob said in his statement of Mr Garnaut: “Fuelling a campaign against a friendly foreign country is incompatible with an advisory and speech writing role on the Prime Minister’s staff.
"When the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister give the impression of reining in rhetoric on China, the revelation that Mr Garnaut has been on the Prime Minister’s payroll is decidedly unhelpful.”
Last week, the foreign interference laws were back at the centre of political debate after an explosive speech in federal parliament by Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and which explored allegations Beijing was interfering in Australian politics.

Australia has become China's puppet state, says Clive Hamilton in Silent Invasion

Chinese agents and Australian Quislings are undermining Australia's sovereignty
By Dylan Welch
Subversion: Huang Xiangmo (R) donated $1.8m to build a "research" institute headed by Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob.

Thousands of agents of the Chinese state have integrated themselves into Australian public life — from the high spheres of politics, academia and business all the way down to suburban churches and local writers' groups — according to a brilliant book to be published on Monday.
The book, Silent Invasion: How China Is Turning Australia into a Puppet State, is written by Clive Hamilton, professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University.
In it, he alleges that a systematic Chinese government campaign of espionage and influence peddling is leading to "he erosion of Australian sovereignty.
That erosion is caused, in part, by a recent wave of Chinese migration to Australia including "billionaires with shady histories and tight links to the [Chinese Communist] party, media owners creating Beijing mouthpieces, 'patriotic' students brainwashed from birth, and professionals marshalled into pro-Beijing associations set up by the Chinese embassy," Professor Hamilton writes.

Professor Clive Hamilton denounces Chinese interference in Australian affairs. 

ABC News has been given a pre-publication copy of the book, which is being published in the middle of widening public debate over China's influence in Australia and concerns Beijing has thousands of unofficial spies in the country.
Those concerns were given some credence by the Government late last year, when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced he planned to enact new foreign interference laws to counter such espionage.
Mr Turnbull used strong language at the time, paraphrasing a famous Chinese communist slogan to say Australia would "stand up" to foreign governments meddling in Australian affairs.
The book will cause particular angst among Australia's political class.

Australia's Quislings
It lists more than 40 former and sitting Australian politicians who are doing the work of China's totalitarian government, if sometimes unwittingly. 

Many are household names.
"Former prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, when their political careers ended they went on to become reliable friends of China, shuttling between the two countries, mixing with the top cadres and tycoons," Professor Hamilton writes.
"While Hawke's China links proved lucrative, Keating was more interested in influence."

Beijing Bob

Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob, is the most famous Australian Quisling. He is currently running a Beijing-backed propaganda outfit: the Australia-China Research Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology, Sydney.

An entire chapter, titled Beijing Bob, is dedicated to former Labor foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr.
The chapter accuses Carr of pushing an aggressive pro-China stance in Labor caucuses.
Professor Hamilton chronicles Carr's 2015 appointment as the founding director of the Australia-China Research Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology, Sydney.
ACRI was created with a $1.8m donation from billionaire property developer Huang Xiangmo, who has donated millions to Australian politicians and has been described in the book as being one of Beijing's most powerful agents of influence in Australia.
"Huang sits at the centre of a web of influence that extends throughout politics, business and the media," Professor Hamilton writes.
Huang has been the subject of public speculation ever since the ABC News revealed his millions of dollars in political donations, and his questionable connections to senior federal politicians, in a series of stories in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
"Let's call the Australia-China Research Institute for what it is," Professor Hamilton writes.
"A Beijing-backed propaganda outfit disguised as a legitimate research institute, whose ultimate objective is to advance the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party's] influence in Australian policy and political circles, an organisation hosted by a university whose commitment to academic freedom and proper practice is clouded by money hunger, and directed by an ex-politician suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome who cannot see what a valuable asset he has become for Beijing."

Huang denies his donations and influence within Australian society are connected to the Chinese Government, describing the allegations as innuendo and racism.

Carr, who declined to comment for this article, has previously said ACRI took a "positive and optimistic view" of the Australia-China relationship.

The book also details a list of Chinese-Australian academics who are allowing the transfer of national security-significant research — in sensitive areas such as space, artificial intelligence and computer engineering — from Australian universities to the Chinese military.
Silent Invasion appears to have also divided Australian Parliament, with Labor and Liberal members of a classified parliamentary committee at odds over whether they should provide legal cover for the book.
Plans were hatched recently by members of Parliament's intelligence oversight body, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS), to publish a digital copy of the book.
The release would have been the first time the Australian parliament published a book in its entirety — therefore granting it a limited form of parliamentary privilege — in an effort to protect the information it contains from legal attack.
While Liberal members of the committee broadly supported publication of the book, the majority of Labor committee members did not, arguing it was not appropriate for the Australian Parliament to give the book its imprimatur.
Silent Invasion was provided to the committee in a submission as part of an inquiry into Mr Turnbull's foreign interference laws.
The book's release by the committee would have been seen as an inflammatory act by Beijing, already smarting from Mr Turnbull's announcement.

Co-opting God
In another section of the book, Professor Hamilton describes a curious relationship between Chinese Christian churches in Australia and the atheist Chinese Communist Party, which has a history of suppressing Christianity at home.

The cover of the controversial book, Silent Invasion: How China Is Turning Australia into a Puppet State, authored by Professor Clive Hamilton. 
He refers to classified Chinese Government reports which instruct Chinese officials to infiltrate overseas churches that have Chinese congregations. 

"They instruct cadres to monitor, infiltrate and 'sinify' overseas Chinese churches by actively promoting the CCP's concepts of Chineseness and 'spiritual love'."
In 2014, he notes, the website of the Canberra Chinese Methodist Church included a statement which linked the rise of the CCP to God's will: "The awe-inspiring righteousness of Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China, and the rise of a great nation that is modern China are part of God's plan, predestination and blessing."
Many Chinese church pastors believe their congregations have been penetrated by Chinese Government cadres, Professor Hamilton writes.
"One pastor told me: 'There are lots of communists in our church community.' He guessed that around a quarter or a third are or have been communists. Some join the church for the companionship, some for the social contacts; others are the [Chinese Government's] assets."
People connected to the Chinese Government have also infiltrated Australia's writing scene. 

A group called the Australian-Chinese Writer's Association was recently taken over by "pro-Beijing forces".
Professor Hamilton describes how well-known Australian writing forums such as the Melbourne Writers Festival and Writers Victoria have unwittingly hosted local Chinese writing groups operating under Beijing's control and "whose aim is to spread into Australian society the CCP worldview, one that is extremely intolerant of artistic license and dissenting views."

A 'landmark win' for China
Silent Invasion is so hated by Beijing it almost didn't make it to publication. 

It was due to be released late last year by Allen & Unwin, but the publisher baulked over concerns it would be targeted by Beijing and its proxies in Australia. 

Melbourne University Press also turned down the book.
That led Professor Hamilton — the author of half-a-dozen books about climate change, politics and economics — to hit out at this attempt by the CCP to muzzle public debate in Australia.
"[This is a] landmark win for the Chinese Communist Party's campaign to suppress critical voices," Professor Hamilton wrote to Allen & Unwin chief executive Robert Gorman at the time.
The book was recently acquired by Hardie Grant, run by Sandy Grant, who in the 1980s published the memoir of former British intelligence officer Peter Wright. 

The publication occurred against the wishes of the British government, which was trying to censor the book.
Mr Grant told the ABC he was aware publishing Silent Invasion may invite the attention of the Chinese government, but he hoped it would not be serious. 

"This is a debate being held at the ABC, the New York Times, the London Times; we are just one voice in that, we are hardly a serious thorn in the Chinese government's side," he said.
Professor Hamilton may also have reason to be concerned about the impact of authoring the book. This week New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered intelligence officers to investigate break-ins at the home and office of prominent NZ China academic Anne-Marie Brady.
Professor Brady has spent her career researching China's global influence and her 2017 paper, Magic Weapons, caused global waves when it revealed how deeply China had penetrated NZ's Government.