A Country Under the (Chinese) Influence

'You must be a potential leader': Labor MP's staffer links to China's Communist Party
By Lisa Visentin

Australia's Chinese fifth column: John Zhang (second from the left) with NSW Labor MLC Shaoquett Moselmane (far right) at a function at NSW Parliament in July 2018. 

A NSW Labor MP linked to Chinese organisations hired a staffer who completed a propaganda training course in Beijing run by the Chinese Communist Party.
Upper house MLC Shaoquett Moselmane, who gave a speech last year proclaiming a "new world order" was needed for China to reach its potential, appointed John Zhang to his parliamentary office at the beginning of 2019.
Moselmane has taken nine privately-funded trips to China since entering Parliament in 2009. Disclosure records show his transport and hospitality costs were met by Chinese government officials or agencies.

Zhang is listed as a vice-chairman of Australia China Economics, Trade and Culture Association (ACETCA) on the organisation's now-defunct website, which China experts say has become a leading Chinese Communist Party-aligned organisation in Australia.
In 2013 Zhang participated in a training course organised by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, a branch within China's State Council, the highest organ of state administration. 

It was held at the Chinese Academy of Governance -- the same institution which trains senior cadres of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Former Chinese consulate official Chen Yonglin, who defected to Australia in 2005, said the training courses were typically invitation-only and were targeted at overseas Chinese community leaders.
"They are selected to be trained by the Chinese embassy or consulate which recommends them to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. Not everyone can go. You must be a potential leader not simply a small pawn," Mr Chen said.
Mr Chen, who trained at Academy of Governance in 2000 before being promoted to a senior government official, said the leadership courses are "directly run by the CCP".
"They (participants) gather together in Beijing and listen to lectures of senior Chinese propaganda officials and United Front officials," he said.
Zhang's trip was documented in the 2013 Yearbook of Chinese in Australia, which includes short biographies of prominent Chinese figures. 

Zhang is listed as a member of the book's editorial committee.

A typical Australian Quisling: Shaoquett Moselman.

The yearbook was described as a "patriotic product, endorsed by the PRC and lauded in the [CCP newspaper] People’s Daily" by China historian Geoff Wade in a review for a journal published by the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific.
Zhang did not respond to the Herald's questions. Moselmane confirmed Zhang had been employed for "just under nine months" on a one-day per week basis.
"He assists with multicultural and constituent matters," Moselman said.
In addition to his senior role in ACETCA, Zhang has previously been chairman of the Australian Shanghainese Association. 

Moselmane is a member of the association and a member of the Australian Chinese Association.
The three organisations were accused by CCP influence experts Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske in a 2018 submission to federal Parliament of being linked to the Chinese government.
The submission named the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China (ACPPRC), once headed by Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo, as the "most active and visible arms of the CCP's interference operations in Australian social and political life".
Huang quit as the chairman of the ACPPRC in 2017 and is at the centre of a NSW corruption inquiry into claims he illegally donated $100,000 to NSW Labor.
Dr Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China Studies at University of Technology, Sydney, said ACETCA had "almost taken over" the role of the ACPPRC as one of the leading Chinese community groups in Australia.
"Due to the Huang Xiangmo affair the ACPPRC has been tarnished. The Chinese authorities need to support a new organisation as a replacement," Dr Feng said.
In a heavily criticised speech at a function in NSW Parliament House last year, Moselmane said the “global media is in the hands of China’s opponents” and China needed to "force a change to the rules and create a new world order” to realise its potential.

How China tried to shut down Australian media coverage of its debt-trap diplomacy in the Pacific

• A Chinese Embassy official yelled and made demands of an Australian producer to try and censor an episode of "60 Minutes" that would be critical of China.
• The Chinese Communist Party regularly interferes with foreign Chinese-language media, but targeting English-language media is rare.
• The "60 Minutes" report covered China's debt-trap diplomacy in the Pacific, including a loan to Vanuatu for a wharf which could be used by the Chinese military.
• Vanuatu's foreign minister said China expects support at the UN in return for financing.

By Tara Francis Chan

Five days before Australia's "60 Minutes" program aired a report on China's dept-trap diplomacy in the Pacific region, the show received an unusually aggressive phone call.
"Take this down and take it to your leaders!" the voice on the other end of the line shouted.
It was the voice of Saixian Cao, the head of media affairs at China's embassy in Canberra.
According to a report from "60 Minutes" journalist Charles Wooley, she was yelling at the show's executive producer, Kirsty Thomson, after failing to gain any traction with higher-ups at the network.
"You will listen," Cao reportedly shouted into the phone.
"There must be no more misconduct in the future."
Thomson and colleagues had been working on a story about China's growing influence over Pacific nations, by using exorbitant loans for infrastructure projects that leave countries indebted to Beijing, both politically and financially.
The story largely focused on China's projects in the island nation of Vanuatu — where the show's team had also recorded footage of the Chinese embassy — and the official was trying everything to kill the story.
"You will not use that footage," Cao demanded.
The incident highlights how China is used to dealing with — and controlling — the Australian media.
Chen Yonglin, a former diplomat at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney who defected in 2005, told Business Insider that this happens frequently with local Chinese language media in Australia and that, ultimately, the incident in Australia would have originated in Beijing.
"The instruction to pressure Channel 9 is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry obviously believed it is necessary. The representation is to warn Channel 9 and other people not to act like that again," Chen said.
Chen also described how monitoring, and attempting to censor media coverage, is a regular occurrence.
"If it's a local Chinese-language media, the Chinese Embassy/Consulate official should call the Editor-in-Chief directly with serious warning and certain sanctions against this media may follow. For less serious cases, China may request to publish a statement from its Embassy."
Business Insider previously reported how diplomats at a Chinese consulate in Australia invited an advertiser in for an hours-long "tea chat" to convince them to stop funding independent Chinese-language journalism.
Another advertiser had Chinese intelligence and security agents physically camp out in his Beijing office to strip funds from critical media.
And last year, two South Korean journalists who followed President Moon Jae-in's trip to Beijing were physically beaten and severely injured by more than a dozen security guards.
Despite the lengths China often goes to influence and outright interfere with foreign media, Chen believes Cao could face repurcussions for crossing a line.
"All Chinese language media are very obedient. Shouting at local Chinese media is not a surprise, but [shouting] at one of the mainstream English media is rare. Saixian Cao could be punished for her behaviour such as being given an internal warning," Chen said.

China gave Vanuatu a loan 360% more expensive than other options

Part of the "60 Minutes" episode highlighted a Chinese-built wharf in Vanuatu that has gained international attention.
Earlier this year reports emerged that China discussed setting up a military presence in Vanuatu, a claim both countries denied but which Australian defense officials confirmed.
And the country's newly built Luganville wharf, which was funded by China and seems more suited to navy vessels than cruise ships, would be crucial to this.
The fear is that Vanuatu, like many countries before it, accepted a loan with exorbitant interest rates and may need to hand over the wharf to China if it defaults, a practice called debt-trap diplomacy.
The country can't even afford the cleaning or electricity bill for a $19 million, Chinese-built convention center.
Yet Vanuatu took an $85 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China for the Luganville wharf, which is topped with a 2% interest rate, that needs to be repaid within 20 years. 
But a similar wharf project in Port Vila, which was funded with a Japanese loan only required a 0.55% interest rate and gave the country twice as long to repay it.
Business Insider contacted Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu with questions about these loans last week but has not yet received a response.
When Sri Lanka defaulted on its loan for a Chinese-built port, it gave state-owned China Merchants Group a 99-year lease which experts believe was a strategic acquisition in the region.
China expects supporting votes at the UN in return.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a Security Council meeting during the 72nd United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on September 20, 2017 in New York City.

Not only are there concerns that China is trying buy access to facilities and sea routes throughout the Pacific, Vanuatu's foreign minister confirmed Beijing's influx of cash has very, and immediate, global consequences.
Asked by "60 Minutes" whether he thinks China is trying to buy votes at the UN, Regenvanu answered in the affirmative.
"What so you think if they can pump money in here, they'll get support at the UN?" the reporter asked.
"Yes," Regenvanu answered.
"I'm sorry, that's bribery."
"Uh, maybe, that's diplomacy," Regenvanu said.
Australia has been trying to counter China's attempts at foreign interference both locally and in the Pacific, with new and expanded laws currently before parliament.
Last month, an Australian MP and chair of parliament's intelligence and security committee publicly identified Chau Chak Wing, a Chinese-born, Australian billionaire and political donor as having funded a $200,000 bribe to a former UN General Assembly president in order to advance Chinese interests.





Beijing henchman Chau Chak Wing

Australia's Chinese Fifth Column

Chinese diplomat who defected to Australia breaks silence to warn of spies
By Joseph Fitsanakis
A Chinese diplomat, who made international news headlines in 2005 when he defected to Australia, has ended a decade of silence to warn about an alleged increase in Chinese espionage operations against his adopted country.

Chen Yonglin was a seasoned member of the Chinese diplomatic corps in 2001, when he was posted as a political affairs consul at the Chinese consulate in Sydney, Australia. 

His job was to keep tabs on the Chinese expatriate community in Australia, with an emphasis on individuals and organizations deemed subversive by Beijing. 

He later revealed that his main preoccupation was targeting members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is illegal in China. 

He also targeted supporters of Taiwanese independence, as well as Tibetan and East Turkestan nationalists who were active on Australian soil.
But in 2005, Chen contacted the Australian government and said that he wanted to defect, along with his spouse and six-year-old daughter. 

He was eventually granted political asylum by Canberra, making his the highest-profile defection of a Chinese government employee to Australia in over half a century. 

During a subsequent testimony given to the Parliament of Australia, Chen said that he was in contact with Australian intelligence and was giving them information about Chinese espionage activities. 

He said at the time that China operated a network of over 1,000 “secret agents and informants” in Australia. 

Chen distinguished agents and informants from Chinese intelligence officers, most of whom were stationed in Chinese diplomatic facilities.
Chen, who now works as a businessman, disappeared from the public limelight after his defection. But last weekend, he reappeared after a decade of obscurity and gave an interview to ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster. 

The ABC journalist reminded Chen that in 2005 he had estimated the number of Chinese agents and informants operating in Australia at 1,000, and asked him how many he thought were active today. Chen responded that an increase in the number is certain, given that “China is now the wealthiest government in the world”. 

That meant, said Chen, that Beijing has the funds that are necessary to maintain “a huge number of spies” in Australia. 

However, the former diplomat said that most Chinese agents are “casual informants”, not trained spies, and that they are dormant for long periods of time in between operations.

Australia's Finlandization: Chinese spies in Australia on the rise

• Chen Yonglin sought political asylum in Australia after resigning his diplomat role
• Warned more that 1,000 Chinese spies in Australia
• Says Chinese community representatives work for Chinese Government

By Andrew Greene

Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin speaks during an address to the University of Melbourne's History Department forum on the nature of political asylum in Australia August 5, 2005 in Melbourne, Australia. Mr Chen defected from China claiming political asylum, and he and his family have since been granted permanent protection visas to stay in Australia. Mr Chen said there are up to 1,000 Chinese spies and operatives in Australia with some being engaged in kidnappings.

Chen Yonglin, the Chinese diplomat who quit his job more than a decade ago, has broken a lengthy silence to warn of a growing number of spies and agents working for Beijing in Australia.

In 2005, Mr Chen caused global headlines when he claimed China was operating a network of "over 1,000 Chinese secret agents and informants in Australia".
The former diplomat, who now works as a businessman, has warned the number of secretive Chinese operatives has steadily grown since he stopped working for China's foreign service.
"There should be some increase after over 10 years because China is now the wealthiest government in the world, they should have money, they should be [able] to afford raise a huge number of spies here," he told ABC News.
He stressed the increase was mainly in casual informants who provided crucial pieces of intelligence to Beijing.
Since successfully seeking political asylum in Australia, Mr Chen said he had become growingly concerned about Beijing's influence in his new home.
He believes that of particular concern is last year's decision to approve a 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to Chinese-owned company Landbridge.
"I think it's very stupid. It's common sense that Darwin Port is strategically important and against the northern invasion," he said.
Mr Chen has also hit out at activists who have recently taken to the streets to show support for China's military expansion in the South China Sea.
"A majority of Chinese community representatives work for the Chinese Government," he said.