Red Alert

Silent Invasion: How China is Turning Australia into a Puppet State

By Frances Mao

A brilliant new book asserts that the Chinese government is undermining Australia's sovereignty through a network of local agents.
Silent Invasion: How China is Turning Australia into a Puppet State by distinguished Australian academic Clive Hamilton, argues that Beijing's reach has extended into Australian politics, business, education and religious groups. 

The book enraged China even before it was published.
Last year, publisher Allen & Unwin withdrew plans to release the book by fear of retaliation by Beijing, and later two other publishers had similar concerns.

The book is the latest addition to a wide-ranging discussion. 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull noted "disturbing reports about Chinese influence" when he unveiled a crackdown on Chinese interference last year.
In October, Australia's chief foreign affairs bureaucrat, Frances Adamson, warned Australian universities to be vigilant about massive efforts by China to exercise influence on campuses.
According to Fairfax Media, Australian lawmakers gave serious consideration to publishing the book under parliamentary privilege -- an unprecedented move that would have given it legal protection. 

Ultimately, though, Prof Hamilton found a commercial publisher.

Prof Clive Hamilton's book exposes China's web of influence.
Since its release, Chinese-Australians have accused the book of "fear-mongering".
Prominent observers and experts, however, have strongly defended it.

What does the book expose?
Prof Hamilton asserts that China is a totalitarian regime bent on dominating Australia, and likens the relationship to "boy scouts up against Don Corleone" -- a reference to The Godfather.
"China plans to dominate the world, and has been using Australia and New Zealand as a testing ground for its tactics to assert its ascendancy in the West," writes Prof Hamilton, a lecturer in public ethics at Charles Sturt University.
He says such a suggestion would have been "fantastic" in the past, but now "so much evidence has accumulated that the conclusion seems irresistible".
Beijing has deliberately targeted its diaspora in Australia to recruit "informers, plants and spies" in business, academic, and other circles. 

Aspects of society covered by the book include:

• Politics: Australia's two major parties are "severely compromised" by links to Chinese benefactors, and those "whose loyalties lie in Beijing".
• Community groups: Pro-Chinese government advocates have made an "almost complete takeover" of Chinese community groups in Australia, such as social organisations, student groups, professional bodies, as well as Chinese-language media. These groups are supported by China's embassy and promote subtle Beijing propaganda to Australia's politicians.
• Research: Chinese-Australian scientists and academics are allowing advanced research to be shared with Chinese universities, either unintentionally through joint projects, or because of duress.

Prof Hamilton had based his assertions on very credible sources and numerous materials that were publicly available, which he had referenced in his book. 

They confirmed "what intelligence agencies have been telling government in secret for the last few years".
Last year, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warned in a report that Chinese communities in Australia were "the subject of covert influence operations" aimed at shutting down criticism.
Pro-Chinese government advocates have made an complete takeover of Chinese community groups in Australia, such as social organisations, student groups, professional bodies, as well as Chinese-language media.

In December, a senator, Sam Dastyari, was forced to resign over scrutiny about his dealings with Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese businessman who was described by Mr Turnbull as having "close links to a foreign government". 

Dastyari denied ever violating his "parliamentary oath".
Mr Turnbull's new crackdown will ban all foreign political donations, and force lobbyists to publicly register any overseas links.

What has been the response to the book?
China's embassy in Australia said Prof Hamilton had been "playing up the 'China threat' for quite some time".

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, who has Chinese ancestry, said some language used in the book "smacks of The Yellow Peril revisited".
But others defended Prof Hamilton, arguing criticism of the book was almost inevitable because of the topics it covered.
China-Australia expert Prof John Fitzgerald, whose work is quoted in the book, said criticism focused on perceptions of the text, rather than what it said.
"None of the reviews have challenged any of the points made. Rather they're concerned it will generate a controversy that gets out of hand," said Prof Fitzgerald, from Swinburne University.

He defended the text as "a very important book" that had brought "government knowledge to public attention".

Skip Twitter post by @chen_yonglin

chen yonglin@chen_yonglin

Replying to @SuLin_Tan and 6 others

Those who haven’t read Prof. Clive Hamilton’s book and label him a racist are vicious slanderers. Those cowards dare not to speak against the Communist infiltration but dare enough to blame the government. People should ask why.

3:41 PM - Feb 27, 2018

• 8
• See chen yonglin's other Tweets

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End of Twitter post by @chen_yonglin

The book has international resonance, according to Prof Rory Medcalf, Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University.
"It is a book about how a multicultural democracy struggles when a foreign power exploits the open nature of its system," said Prof Medcalf, whose work is also quoted in the book.
He said Prof Hamilton's language was "darker than what government agencies would use", but it raised important concerns.

China Dream

The filth they breathe in China
By Michael Auslin

Winter has returned to northern China.
And so has the country's trademark, deadly smog.
The central government recently declared its first-ever national red alert for air quality, with pollution levels hovering over 12 times the level recommended by the World Health Organization.
Indeed, China's unprecedented growth has come at a horrific social cost that is just beginning to get serious attention.
The political leadership of China put economic growth far above environmental protection or health concerns, and the country now faces a catastrophically polluted countryside.
Nearly all aspects of China's environment are affected, and the true economic and health effects are only now becoming apparent.
Pollution in China is at an unsustainable level.
The cost in lives and the cost of cleaning up China's ruined rivers, lakes, skies, and soil are staggering.
Just as significant will be the economic cost of changing the way business is done in China to prevent further environmental destruction.
The lack of industrial regulation, the burning of dirty coal, and the rapid growth in private ownership of cars have combined to create one of the world's worst air pollution problems.
On one of my first trips to Beijing, as our plane touched down in the early afternoon, the sky looked as though it was dusk, a phenomenon universally noted by visitors.
The rarity of sunny and blue sky is avidly remarked on by everyone from shopkeepers to government officials — the latter, of course, off the record.
By some estimates, only 1 percent of China's urban dwellers breathe safe air. 
During the winter of 2012–13, levels of the most dangerous type of particulate matter in Beijing's air were over 20 times the amount recommended by the World Health Organization.
Midday in Beijing looked like late evening, and residents were urged to stay inside.
The massive scale of China's air pollution problem was dramatically exposed when Beijing was cleared of over one million automobiles for nearly a month before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games, creating a stretch of clear weather not seen in over a decade.
In October 2013, the city of Harbin in northeastern China, home to 11 million people, was essentially shut down for over a day because of smog that measured 50 times worse than the daily limit set by the World Health Organization.
China's dark skies impose staggering demographic costs.
As early as the 1990s, respiratory disease was identified as one of the country's leading causes of death.
Chinese environmental activists claim that in the most polluted cities, such as Guangzhou, residents' lungs turn black by the time they are in their forties.
A 2007 World Bank study claimed that outdoor air pollution causes up to 400,000 premature deaths each year, and polluted air inside homes and factories causes another 300,000. 
A more recent study put the total number of deaths caused by air pollution at 1.2 million annually. 
A 2013 study estimated that people in northern China have a nearly six-year drop in life expectancy due to pollution.
Nor do China's citizens find much help in the ground.
The water may be even worse than the air.
Most of the country's water sources, from lakes to rivers, streams, and catch basins, are hazardous to human health. 
Industrial runoff, poor sewage treatment, and lack of adequate waste disposal locations, particularly throughout China's interior, have poisoned the country's water sources.
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace accuse industrial concerns of dumping poisonous chemicals and other waste into rivers and lakes in and near cities. 
In March 2013, over 3,000 dead pigs floated down a major river through Shanghai, leading to widespread fears of waterborne contamination from the carcasses.
Some rivers are so polluted that the fish in them have died, yet local populations still use them for washing clothes.
The World Bank concluded in 2007 that 60,000 deaths occur each year from diarrhea, cancer, and other diseases caused by waterborne pollution.
One nonprofit environmental group claimed in a 2011 study that 39 percent of China's seven main river basins were too polluted for general use, including 14 percent that were unfit even for industrial use.
In 26 key lakes and reservoirs, only 42 percent of the total water was deemed fit for swimming and fishing, while 8 percent was unfit even for industrial use.
The World Bank estimates that the groundwater in half of China's cities is dangerously polluted. 
That means that at least half of China's population lacks access to safe drinking water.
In all, a quarter of China's water sources are too polluted for human use.
The problem is growing despite government attempts to improve water quality.
All this pollution is taking an enormous toll on China's citizens and its economy.
The World Bank estimated that the health effects of pollution cost China's economy upward of $100 billion per year, or 3 percent of GDP.
Overall, as millions of Chinese continue to move to the cities, air quality worsens and local sanitation systems get overwhelmed, while back in the hinterlands, factories go on destroying lakes and rivers. Modernization clearly does not mean wealth for everyone in China, nor, despite the trappings of middle-income lifestyles, does it necessarily mean a healthier standard of living.

Plagues of China

Don’t Blame the Weather For China’s Smog
By Junfeng "Jim" Zhang

Like a Chinese dream

China’s air quality has been particularly bad so far this winter. 

Severe smog or haze episodes have occurred one after another with short breaks in between, affecting many parts of the world’s second largest economy, including some remote cities in the far west East Turkestan

Northern China has been hit hardest, with much of the national and international attention focusing in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Last week, Beijing issued its first-ever red alert for “fog” due to extremely low visibility caused by haze. 

The warning is the most severe pollution warning in the country’s four-tier system, resulting in school closures and flight cancellations and delays.
Haze and PM2.5 are perhaps the most commonly used words in China nowadays. PM2.5 is a term for tiny particles that can cause respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, and other health problems. High concentrations of agglomerated fine particles in the atmosphere are directly translated to decreased visibility or grey-ish sky. 

Hence, China counts the number of blue-sky days per year to assess progress made toward improved air quality.
Since Li Keqiang declared a war on air pollution in 2014, the Chinese Government released a set of aggressive air quality control regulations that aimed to reduce PM2.5 by 20% in five years. 

Annual average concentrations of PM2.5 have declined in the last three years. 

And this past summer, Beijing and other cities in China had more “blue sky” days than previous years. 

China’s government was pleased to see the effectiveness of its stricter emission standards on power plants and industrial facilities, but that sentiment quickly changed when a series of negative reports of haze emerged in the Fall of 2016.
It is, of course, convenient to blame the weather. 

No one knows better than Beijing residents about the importance of having northerly wind or a good rain to clean a sky filled with PM2.5 and gaseous pollutants. 

It is true that the atmospheric condition, with less precipitation and wind, is less favorable for pollutant dispersion in the winter than in the summer in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hubei region. 

This is an important contributor to worsened air quality in winter months in this region. 

However, this factor alone does not explain the frequent reoccurrence and very wide spread of haze episodes across China. 

Blaming weather for the problem may exasperate an already angry audience who might consider this an irresponsible excuse to the real cause of the problem.
The reality is that new regulations to curb pollution aren’t enough, and the latest alert signals that China’s government needs to do more. 

The January 4th 2017 issue of Economist presented data showing a hike in production output of crude steel, cement, and coke in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the second half of 2016 compared to the same time period in 2015. 

The question remains whether the more stringent emission controls of these large industrial facilities are enough to offset the emissions resulting from increased industrial production.
As China’s economy grows in tandem with growing demands for energy, coal is still unfortunately the principal fuel for keeping homes and buildings warm in many parts of China beyond Beijing. Small-scale coal boilers and residential coal stoves in general have very poor combustion efficiency, emitting PM2.5, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants into the atmosphere, which can be visually seen as soot-laden smoke. 

These numerous and individually-owned combustion devices are hard to regulate for their emissions. In addition, as China continues to experience growth in both the number of privately-owned automobiles, there is every reason to believe that vehicular emissions have contributed to the air pollution problem as resident drive more.
Qualifying contributions of various sources to each haze episode has never been easy. 

While scientists are busy figuring out how water vapours from combustion sources, including natural gas and petroleum combustions, enhance the formation of PM2.5 and how emission-altered climate and weather conditions can in turn affect air quality, the message for policy actions is clear. 

It is a burning issue! 

Burning coal and other fossil fuels is the origin of the problem. 

There is a limit on how far today’s technology can go in terms of reducing emissions from coal. Without a significant reduction in coal consumption, especially when atmospheric conditions are unfavourable for pollutant dispersion, it would not be possible to see blue skies.
Although China has been increasingly investing in the production of renewable energy and cleaner energy, this winter’s severe haze problem sends a strong signal that the pace for replacing dirty energy is not fast enough. 

If all the efforts were targeted to large industrial facilities while leaving numerous small sources unchecked, one could only just sit and wait for mother nature’s power to blow away or wash out the dirty stuff pumped into the atmosphere by burning dirty fuels. 

China’s haze is truly a burning “burning issue.” 

Every effort should be made to reduce the burning of dirty fuels.

Plague of China: Airpocalypse

China Deletes Online Criticism of Toxic Smog Choking Its Cities
By Yang Fan and Lin Ping

As northern China entered its second day on red alert for toxic smog, online censors moved to delete content criticizing the ruling Chinese Communist Party for its handling of the air pollution crisis that grips the country every winter.
Calls have been growing on social media to pin down the government departments responsible for the various factors contributing the toxic brown soup that hundreds of millions of people are forced to breathe in Chinese cities.
"The State Council must make a formal statement to the 1.4 Chinese people explaining itself," one commentator wrote, calling for "formal plans" to tackle the problem within the next decade.
"People understand that the water can support the boat, but that it can also sink it," the article warned, in a metaphor referring to the ruling party and the people.
The post was rapidly deleted from social media sites and the popular smartphone chat app WeChat.
References and links to a Financial Times article in Chinese by outspoken Beijing University law professor Zhang Qianfan, titled "Can China find its way out of its systemic smog?" were also apparently targeted by censors, returning messages indicating a "violation of content regulations" on Friday.

No real plan
Beijing resident Guo Guijun said the deletion of online content about the smog showed the authorities have no real plan to tackle the problem.
"If they are even going to delete content that is public knowledge, then I think they lack the courage to face up to the situation," Guo said.
"The facts are the facts ... and avoiding the issue isn't going to solve anything."
She said many people in Beijing are feeling a sense of despair in the face of the smog.
"I'm from Beijing; I don't have anywhere else I could go," Guo said.
"For me, there's no escape."
"We need a leader who is willing to take responsibility and be accountable to the people, because everyone wants this problem to get fixed," she said.

Help for schools
Meanwhile, the Beijing government said it would help finance air purification systems in the city's schools to protect children's health.
Beijing's municipal government education bureau called on district governments to move ahead with purification systems as part of a pilot scheme that could soon be rolled out citywide, official media reported on Friday.
The city government will allocate money to help schools cover the costs, the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, reported.
It said kindergartens and primary and middle schools in Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, and Fengtai districts have already installed such devices, with financial support from the government, enterprises, and parents.
Earlier this week, a middle school affiliated with the prestigious Tsinghua University installed the first batch of air filtration devices in 11 classrooms, and will soon install them in all classrooms, the paper said.

Beyond hazardous
Many northern Chinese cities have seen hazardous levels of air pollution, with some measuring far beyond the "hazardous" level of 500 on air quality indices in recent days.
As of 3.00 p.m. local time on Friday, the northern oil city of Daqing saw an AQI level of 999, Quartz news reported after monitoring the online Real-time Air Quality Index, which tracks air pollution readings in cities around the world.
The smog also appeared to be drifting south on Friday.
The provincial meteorological bureau in the southern province of Guangdong issued a warning of "moderate to severe" air pollution for Friday and Saturday in the Pearl River Delta region.
In Hong Kong, where downtown areas logged air quality readings at an "unhealthy" 152 in some busy areas on Friday, government officials said air pollution in the city had showed a marginal improvement in some areas during 2016.
Air quality official Mok Wai-chuen said the city had recently adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) target for nitrogen dioxide into its air quality objectives, which he described as "very strict."
"We have been able to achieve the short-term objectives for the general air monitoring stations, but not for the roadside stations," he said of the pollutant, which is linked to exhaust fumes from diesel vehicles.

China Dream

SMOG IN CHINA PROMPTS TIDE OF TOURISM FLEEING ‘AIRPOCALYPSE’ 
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV 

The heavy smog enveloping northern China is creating a tide of “smog refugees,” traveling elsewhere in a bid for temporary respite from the pollution in their home region, travel agents warn.
Smog has become a periodic problem for China, prompting a red alert most recently in Hebei province and the municipality of Beijing this month.
China’s online travel agency Ctrip estimated that 150,000 would travel overseas in December, to escape the smog, news website China Daily reported Monday.
Ctrip claims that on its cellphone app, the phrases “avoiding smog” and “lung cleansing” have become top searches with more than 5,000 results.
China’s state-run Global Times labelled the smog phenomenon an “airpocalypse,” while the decision to stay away while it literally blows over—a “lung vacation”.
The smog has already prompted a drop in steel and iron ore futures for a sixth consecutive session Wednesday as construction and industrial activities were halted.

China Dream

China’s ‘airpocalypse’ hits half a billion people
By Yuan Yang in Beijing

Return of 'airpocalypse'

China Dream
The government has shut schools, restricted road traffic and urged people to stay indoors as 24 cities across northeast China were put on “red alert” for extreme smog on Tuesday.
China's most severe bout of air pollution this year has hit 460m people, who are exposed to smog levels six times higher than the World Health Organisation’s daily guidelines, according to calculations by Greenpeace. 

The smog has lasted over three days in many areas.
As of 11am local time, 217 flights at Beijing Capital Airport had been cancelled — almost a third of the total scheduled for the whole day.
Pollution has become a rallying topic for Chinese citizens. 

“The smog problem is a man-made disaster, local environment bureaux are not fulfilling their responsibilities,” wrote the top-rated online poster under a news article about the smog.
Two weeks ago, Beijing’s city legislature considered classifying smog as a “weather disaster”. 

The move was questioned by environmental researchers who said it would help polluters escape responsibility for man-made pollution.
“The government is under too little pressure. It’s not enough to make them reform and make people’s lives their top priority,” wrote another online poster going by the initials HJ. 

“The people are under too much pressure — if we try to protest, we’re said to be 'creating public disorder’."
Earlier this month, a planned protest against smog in the southwestern city of Chengdu was pre-empted by riot police who shut down the city’s central square. 

Sit-in protesters wearing smog masks were detained by police for questioning.
“The link between smog and industry is clear. Since the second quarter of this year, when steel prices and output started growing, we saw air quality decline in the northeast,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, an air pollution specialist at Greenpeace in Beijing. 

“It’s a result of the government’s old-fashioned stimulus that boosted the industrial sectors.”
China’s smog is worst in the winter, when households consume more electricity from coal-fired power plants, and municipal heating is turned on.
In response to the emergency, the Ministry of Environmental Protection sent out three inspection teams, and publicly singled out chemical manufacturing companies that had failed to shut down their operations under the red-alert regulations, as well as power plants and coal-burning plants that had not met environmental standards.
The northeastern port city of Tianjin closed all but one of the highways in and out of the city because of poor visibility on the weekend. 

Over 30 flights were grounded at its international airport over the weekend.
Beijing, which has been on red alert since Friday, halved the number of motor vehicles allowed on the road on any given day by banning even- and odd-numbered license-plates on different days.
Ikea said that customer deliveries would be slower because of the vehicle restrictions while Taobao, China’s most popular online marketplace, warned customers that packages might be delayed because of the smog. 

SF Express, one of China’s largest logistic companies, said the heavy smog would delay packages for customers in Beijing, Tianjin and part of Hebei province for up to two days.
And visitors hoping to taste the capital’s most famous dish would have been disappointed on the weekend, when restaurants were banned from burning wood for roasting ducks. 

Plagued by industrial overcapacity, the Chinese government is now trying to shift the economy towards the service sector, and letting factories close in the industrial rust-belt of the northeast.