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.

The Manchurian Alphabet

Lawmakers accuse Google of supporting China's Communist Party over the US with Huawei ties

• Google's ties with Huawei could pose a serious risk to U.S. national security and American consumers.
• Google creates the Android mobile operating system on Huawei devices and the two firms have a partnership to do with mobile messaging.
• Google ended a scheme with the U.S. government called Project Maven which used artificial intelligence for military purposes.

By Arjun Kharpal

Beijing chum Sundar Pichai

Lawmakers have urged Alphabet's Google to reconsider its ties with Chinese technology giant Huawei because it could pose a serious risk to U.S. national security and American consumers.
In a letter to the search giant's CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday, both Republican and Democrat lawmakers said they were concerned about Google's "strategic partnership" with Huawei. 

The two have a long-standing relationship. 

Huawei, which is now the third-largest smartphone maker in the world by market share, runs a version of Google's Android mobile operating system on its devices. 

And in January, they formed a partnership to work on a new standard of mobile phone messaging.
Huawei is one of China's largest technology companies producing consumer electronics alongside its core telecommunications equipment business.
What appeared to annoy lawmakers was the fact that Google continued to work with Huawei when earlier this month it had stopped working with the U.S. government on a scheme called Project Maven. 

The project used Google's artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyze drone footage and images to improve the targeting of drone strikes. 

"We urge you to reconsider Google's partnership with Huawei, particularly since your company recently refused to renew a key research partnership, Project Maven, with the Department of Defense. This project uses artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of U.S. military targeting, not least to reduce civilian casualties," the letter said.
"While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support the Chinese Communist Party than the U.S. military."
Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The U.S. government has continuously accused Huawei of working on behalf of the Chinese government. 

In February, intelligence officials warned Americans not to buy Huawei devices because they could be used to spy on users. 

The Chinese electronics maker was supposed to enter the U.S. via mobile network AT&T, but the deal fell through.
Earlier this year, lawmakers introduced a new bill known as the Defending U.S. Government Communications Act, which would ban government agencies from using equipment from Chinese firms such as ZTE and Huawei.
"Over the coming months, the federal government will likely take further measures to defend U.S. telecommunications networks from Huawei and companies like it," the lawmakers' letter said.
Huawei was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Tension between China and the U.S. has heightened in recent weeks amid rising trade tensions between the two nations. 

Other technology firms have also been dragged into it, including telecommunications firm ZTE.

Billionaire's corruption claims ripple through China's Communist Party

A Chinese billionaire in exile is meddling with the inner workings of China's Communist Party.
DW

China's government censor warned in April there would be "serious consequences" for unauthorized media coverage of Guo Wengui, the billionaire real estate magnate living in the United States. 

His case is "highly politically sensitive," it stated.
There is a reason China's Communist Party is so concerned: A few days earlier Guo had accused high-ranking party members of corruption in a live interview with the Mandarin-language service of Voice of America (VOA), a US government-funded media outlet. 

The livestream, scheduled for three hours, was halted after 80 minutes. 

The video stopped just as Guo began discussing Wang Qishan, who heads China's internal corruption watchdog.
Five VOA employees were put on administrative leave thereafter, including Service Chief Sasha Gong. 

The decision to cut short the livestream was made before it began, VOA stated. 

It added there was no pressure to do so from the US government, and while China did pressure the organization, VOA said that did not influence its decision.

Wang Qishan's role as chief corruption watchdog is considered second in power only to President Xi Jinping

Ex-spy chief on video
Bill Ide, a Beijing correspondent for VOA, was informed that the Guo interview was viewed as an interference in internal Chinese affairs and summoned by the Foreign Ministry, two VOA employees told The New York Times. 

The broadcast will reportedly play a role in visa extensions for VOA journalists.
A Chinese media campaign against Guo is underway, including videos with Ma Jian, the former acting director of state security who was detained two years ago in a corruption investigation. 

In the videos, he speaks about a number of unseemly business dealings he helped Guo with.
China's foreign ministry said on April 20 that Interpol had issued a "red notice" for Guo. 

A "red notice" is an international alert for someone wanted for extradition. Guo, a member of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, resides in the US, which does not have an extradition treaty with China.

Abduction in Hong Kong
Despite China's official designation as a socialist country "with a Chinese character," its economic opening starting more than 25 years ago has produced the most billionaires in the world. 

Real estate has been a particularly fruitful way to amass wealth, which is maintained with the help of political connections and protection. 

But it can be risky business: Billionaire Xiao Jianhua was abducted from his hotel in Hong Kong in January and returned to mainland China. 

The Canadian passport holder, who the New York Times reported in 2014 had business ties with relatives of Xi Jinping, has not been heard from since.

Billionaire Xiao Jianhua was abducted from his hotel in Hong Kong and taken to mainland China in January

Dangerous political infighting
Information on powerful families is particularly valuable this year. 

The Communist Party will hold its quinquennial conference in the fall, during which new leadership will be chosen. 

Corruption accusations can serve as a useful tool for eliminating opposition vying for top posts. 

Guo's claims may wreak havoc on internal party politics, and there may be more to come: He has announced a press conference for June in New York. 

He has already compared the relationship between Chinese business people and politicians to prostitution.

Massive Chinese Fifth Column

The Gulag Aperture: Hollywood Becomes Handmaiden To China's Communist Party

By Capital Flows

Wang Jianlin arrives before the company’s IPO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 23, 2014.

On New Year’s Day, China Central Television (CCTV) unveiled its newest “soft power” entertainment media venture, whose purpose is to extend China’s global media influence. 

Xi Jinping said that the overriding directive of this new collection of television stations and news agencies will be to “follow the party line and promote ‘positive propaganda as the main theme.’”
The CCTV announcement compounds the growing risk that increased Chinese investment will entice Hollywood into volunteering itself as a propaganda division of the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

And if these trends continue, the Western world’s outlet for Chinese dissenters will be closed.
China’s film industry has in recent years grown approximately 34% annually and generated $6.8 billion in 2015. 

While many applaud the very modest political reforms that sometimes complement China’s market liberalization, one should be wary of the country’s iron grip on its entertainment industry.

China’s industry players are inextricably bound to the CPC, as evidenced by the ascent of Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man. 

Jianlin’s successes are a product of quid pro quo arrangements between himself and the CPC’s top officials. 

Further, Jianlin is a delegate to the CPC congress and was a high-level advisor in China’s faux legislature from 2008 to 2013. 

Today, CPC delegate Jianlin can count several American awards shows, including the Golden Globes, the Billboard and American Music Awards, and even AMC Theaters as part of his recently accrued collection.
One may argue that the influence of China’s propaganda machine is overstated. 

After all, Russia has been doing the same thing for years through its RT media network. Economically though, Russia is little more than “Upper Volta with missiles.” 

The Russian Bear simply can’t wield a cudgel or dangle a financial carrot the way the Red Dragon can. 

If Putin threatened to remove Russian funding from Western media, it would be like threatening to remove a bucket of water from the ocean.
Jianlin, on the other hand, has made clear exactly what would happen if President Trump followed up on the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission’s recommendation to ban China’s state-owned companies from buying American ones: “Tell Mr. Trump that I have $10 billion of investments in the United States and more than 20,000 employees there who wouldn’t have anything to eat should things be handled poorly.”
Jianlin demands American compliance with Chinese propaganda prerogatives, all while U.S. film investments are barred from the Chinese market. 

It’s no wonder the Justice Department and Congress have begun to look askance at this exclusively CPC-friendly arrangement.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued a report in October 2015 detailing the consequences of China’s far-reaching propaganda efforts. 

The Commission noted that the chilling influence of Chinese media propagandists is already felt, that it is a “truism” that Hollywood won’t make a film “that the Chinese would reject for social or political reasons.”
The Commission elaborated by explaining that “Hollywood confronts broad consequences when it does not appease Chinese regulators: Captain Phillips found itself $9 million short of its anticipated revenue after finding itself unable to distribute in China [due to censorship].”
Seeds have now been sewn for an American entertainment industry financially beholden to Chinese investors whose purpose and direction begins and ends with the CPC.
The entwining of Hollywood’s and the CPC’s dual fates, and so Hollywood’s complicity in pitching communist propaganda, will persist so long as China continues its aggressive courtship. 

An announced production and distribution partnership between China Film Co. and Paramount Pictures, as well as the $100 million establishment of a U.S.-China cooperative film fund by China Film Co., proves as much.
Is it even possible for the mission of Chinese film and television projects to diverge from the mission of the CPC? 

The evidence isn’t heartening.
China Film Co. is state-owned, meaning that the creative direction of Chinese filmmakers following, say, a $610 million share flotation, will be influenced by the CPC, as will the aforementioned partnership with Paramount. 

Who would believe that this influence doesn’t spill over into Hollywood, when it’s been said that La Peikang, the head of China Film, is the “man to whom Hollywood now goes [to], cap in hand”? Regarding television, the head of CCTV is also the television industry’s chief regulator.
Private companies should be wary of playing devil’s handmaiden to China’s communist propagandists. 

American social media has already proved itself willing to help China’s state apparatus surveil Chinese citizens. 

If the American film and television industry joined in this promiscuous courting of CPC largesse, the net effect might be too great to overcome. 

The CPC’s agitprop would echo across continents.