Honeytrap: 'My Chinese wife is not involved'

Darwin Lord Mayor denies conflict of interest over China agreement

• Concern raised over Confucius Institute posing a danger to academic freedom in the Northern Territory
• Kon Vatskalis's Chinese wife's historic involvement in the institute has been raised as a conflict of interest
• Push for more Chinese money and sex is playing directly into the Chinese Government's long-term power strategy

By Matt Garrick, Rosa Ellen and Mitchell Abram

Chinese honeytrap: Kon Vatskalis and his new wife.

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has denied his decision to sign a "cooperation agreement" between Darwin City Council and a Chinese district was in any way related to his Chinese wife's historic links to the Chinese Government-run Confucius Institute.
An Australian academic raised concerns about the influence of the institute within Australian universities, including at the Charles Darwin University campus in Darwin's northern suburbs.
Associate Professor Feng Chongyi, of the University of Technology in Sydney, said "it is not appropriate to have that sort of operation on the campus in Australia" and any ties to government leaders could be seen as a risk to "political integrity".
Vatskalis late last month signed a "letter of intent on strengthening cooperation" between his council and the economic powerhouse of Yuexiu District, in Guangzhou, China, "for the purpose of expanding upon the traditional friendship between the two countries and further developing the exchanges and cooperation between the two cities".
The Australian newspaper reported on the agreement earlier this week and said Chinese "media reports cast [the agreement] as falling within Yuexiu's One Belt, One Road economic and cultural exchanges".
The One Belt, One Road Initiative has attracted concern from Australian Government officials because it was being used as a strategy to push China's long-term global influence.

Confucius Institute link 'a worry'
The Confucius Institute is an education organisation promoting Chinese language and culture run by the Chinese Communist Party, and designed as a soft power push to promote the policies of Xi Jinping's Government.
Vatskalis's Chinese wife Amy Yu-Vatskalis lectures in Mandarin at CDU, and was seconded to the university from Hanban, the Confucius Institute's Chinese headquarters, in 2012.
While not employed by the Confucius Institute at CDU, Yu-Vatskalis was understood to attend their speeches and events.
Professor Feng said having China-centric Confucius Institute campus within the Northern Territory's only university posed a risk to "academic freedom, freedom of free speech" and any links to government officials could "compromise political integrity".
He said Yu-Vatskalis's historic links to the Confucius Institute were a "worry" and "absolutely" posed a conflict of interest considering her husband's role as Darwin Lord Mayor.
"If the Government and the family or the relative would work with the Confucius Institute, it will compromise the political integrity of this country," Professor Feng said.
"It means you are part of the Chinese influence network."
Professor Feng said Confucius Institute was part of the Chinese Government's soft power strategy in the Asia Pacific region and promoted the oppressive regime and policies of Xi Jinping.
"If you look at the bigger picture, the overall big picture of the Chinese Government operation, to establish Confucius Institute is part of the so-called [People's Republic of China] United Front strategy, to create friendship between Chinese Government and Australian Government, [and] between the Australian public and the Chinese Government," Professor Feng said.
Chinese-owned Landbridge Group has a 99-year lease for Darwin Port. 

He also said he thought Vatskalis's dealings in China, and his public support for furthering relations with the Chinese was playing into the Chinese Government's long-term strategic plans.
"It will create an environment for the Chinese Government to have harder interest, such like the Darwin Port, and One Belt, One Road initiatives," he said.
The Darwin Port was leased to Chinese company Landbridge for 99 years in 2015, a move also seen by academics as a play into China's long-term strategic aims.

Council 'may not have understood'
In relation to the letter of intent signed in Yuexiu, Vatskalis said the City of Darwin "was not at pressure to sign anything about the Belt Road Initiative".
"It's an issue for the State Government and the Federal Government, I'm staying out of the politics with that," Vatskalis said.
Michael Shoebridge, the Director of Defence and Strategy at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, also raised questions about the agreement between the Darwin City Council and the Chinese municipality.
He said he was concerned the symbolism of the initiative may not have been fully understood by Darwin's council.
Darwin City Council has signed up to a "letter of intent" to develop ties with a powerful district in China. 

"The BRI is a signature strategic, political, and economic initiative by the Chinese State as part of trying to establish strategic and economic dominance, that's what it's about," he told ABC Radio Darwin.
The deal was being used symbolically by the Chinese to apply pressure on Australia.
"To say, hey, a part of Australia is supporting BRI -- and they're doing that because they would love to drive a wedge between the different levels of government in Australia, to put pressure on the Federal Government to change its policy."

Sick men of Asia

Sora Aoi: Japan's porn star who taught a Chinese generation about sex
By Fan Wang

When Japanese actress and former porn star Sora Aoi announced her marriage online, it set off a frenzy on Chinese social media.
That's because she has played a surprisingly significant role in the lives of a generation of young Chinese internet users.
On New Year's day, Ms Aoi posted a picture of her engagement ring on social media and announced the happy news to her fans around the world. 

Within 48 hours, the post got more than 170,000 comments and 830,000 likes on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
"We grew up with your movies and will support you as always," said one fan.
Another Weibo user said: "You will always be my goddess… I wish you happiness."

'Teacher Aoi'
Ms Aoi started her career in pornography in the early 2000s. 

It is estimated that she had starred in more than 90 adult films, with new work being published every month between 2003 and 2005.
Pornography is illegal in China, but that didn't stop Chinese men going crazy for her.
"To many Chinese men who couldn't get proper sexual education in their adolescence, Sora Aoi became our teacher," 27-year-old "Liu Qiang" (not his real name) told the BBC.

Ms Aoi announced her marriage on Weibo

Her popularity in China soared at a time when the Chinese internet was developing at breakneck pace. 

New web portals, online communities and streaming sites emerged one after another, facilitating the spread of all kinds of information -- including illicit pornographic materials.
Mr Liu used to watch and share porn featuring Ms Aoi using MP4 players with friends when he was in high school. 

But as technology evolved, they turned to streaming websites to watch porn, as it was "much easier".
"Sora Aoi seized the right time to rise in China", says Prof Wai-ming Ng from Chinese University of Hong Kong's Department of Japanese Studies,
"When she became popular in the country, China was opening up to the outside world in various ways, including in terms of sexuality."

Fans rushed to see Ms Aoi when she attended a marketing event in China
Porn is a key source for information about sex for young people in China, as sex education is limited at school; and most Chinese parents shy away from teaching children about sex.
During a study conducted by Peking University in 2009, more than 22,000 questionnaires were distributed among young people aged between 15 and 24. 

They were asked to answer three questions on reproductive health -- but only 4.4% of participants managed to answer all the questions correctly.
The researchers also noted that many young people learn about sex "by themselves".
But Lin Yinhe, China's first female sexologist, cautions against porn being used as a tool of sex education.
Porn depicts sex in an exaggerated way, and some men may be "misled" as they compare themselves to porn actors, Ms Li told the BBC.
Experts have also argued that porn can distort young people's attitudes to sex, or contribute to sexual health problems.

'The Night of Sora Aoi'
With so much porn freely and readily available, what made Ms Aoi stand out?
Sex remains a taboo subject in Asian societies, but Ms Aoi said she "never looked down on herself" because of her career in pornography.

She always said she "enjoyed her job" because she could go abroad and speak to fans around the world.
Even when faced with disparaging comments online, Ms Aoi responds politely and with warmth, and her openness and frankness have helped her earn respect and appreciation from fans.
Ms Aoi opened her Twitter account on 11 April 2010. 

The news spread to China, where Twitter is banned, prompting a flood of Chinese fans to scale the Great Firewall of government censorship by using VPNs to follow her.
That night was later dubbed "the night of Sora Aoi" by Chinese fans.
Seven months later, Ms Aoi opened an account on Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblog. 

She has earned more than 18 million followers so far -- more than the likes of Taylor Swift and David Beckham.
Ms Aoi formally retired from pornography in 2011, reinventing herself as a proper actress and singer.
She released music singles and has landed roles in online videos and movies -- and China is a huge market for her.
She appears to have put a lot of effort into familiarising herself with Chinese culture. 

Every post on Ms Aoi's Weibo is written in Chinese by herself, her manager told the BBC.
Apart from the language, she also started learning Chinese calligraphy. 

In 2013, a piece of her calligraphy was said to have been sold at 600,000 yuan ($92,000; £68,000).

'Belonging to the world'
It seems paradoxical that Ms Aoi is widely adored by Chinese fans, given the tumultuous relations between China and Japan.
There is longstanding bitterness in China over Japanese occupation during World War Two, and the countries remain in dispute over a group of Japanese islands known as the Senkaku Islands.
But Wenwei Huang, a Chinese writer who lives in Japan, thinks Ms Aoi has actually played a mitigating role in the civil relations between China and Japan.
"There was once a popular saying on China's internet -- 'Senkaku Islands belong to China, and Sora Aoi belongs to the world'. This is how she relieved the political and civil tensions."
Prof Ng says the Sora Aoi phenomenon in China is a symbol of how, in the age of globalisation, the way people define themselves is not only shaped by nationalities -- but by consumption of media content as well.
"For people who like Sora Aoi, no matter which country they are from, they would all feel like they belong to the same group."
Perhaps Ms Aoi serves as reminder to people across Asia -- despite different nationalities or political views -- that they have more in common than they realise.