Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should not only continue ‘standing up’ to Beijing but he should take further measures in dealing with China’s Communist Party’s inference in Australia, says an association of Chinese Australians.
The Australian Values Alliance (AVA), a Chinese community group opposed to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Australia, said they welcomed Turnbull’s comments that stood up for national interests in the face of reports of Beijing’s interference in local affairs.
Speaking to journalists, Turnbull rejected the reproach from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang who said that the Australian leader was pandering to “irresponsible reports by some Australian media.”
A day earlier, Turnbull said he had taken seriously media reports of Chinese meddling in Australian politics and the broader community.
In response to Geng’s comments, Turnbull said he would “stand up” for Australians.
“And we stand up and so we say, the Australian people stand up,” he said.
The Australian Values Alliance – which has former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin and China expert Professor Feng Chongyi as core members – said that when dealing with a bully regime such as China’s communists, Australia has no choice but to stand up.
“When dealing with this kind of country, Australians have no choice but to stand up by firmly saying ‘no,'” said the AVA statement.
The group said it was reassured to hear Turnbull’s “Australian people stand up” comments in the face of aggressive intimidation from China’s communist government which they say adheres to Cold War tactics in Australia “through the exportation of corruption, the exportation of terror, the exportation of constraining free speech and persecution of human rights.”
The AVA detailed what they say are the CCP’s activities in Australia.
“[The communists directly interfere] with Australian elections, intimidating candidates, fracturing and manipulating Australian community groups, intimidating or even directly persecuting Australian residents of Chinese descent or their relatives in China for speaking out with political views that do not align with its own,” AVA said.
“[The CCP also intimidates] Australian scholars and media that speak frankly, intimidating and interfering with the normal teaching and operations of Australian tertiary and other educational institutions,” said the statement.
“[To do this, Beijing uses] money, power or sex to bribe or entrap Australian politicians and subsequently control them, et cetera.”
The AVA’s statement also follows recent media coverage on Australian Labor Party (ALP) senator Sam Dastyari who resigned earlier in the week over his support of certain Beijing polices and his links with a CCP-linked Chinese billionaire.
The Australian Values Alliance made suggestions on how the government could deal with such foreign inference effectively – one of which was implementing “fair reciprocity” legislation.
The AVA was established last year to protest proposed concerts in several Australian cities that celebrated the “Chinese dictator and butcher Mao Zedong.” The pressure applied by AVA and media attention successfully saw the cancellation of those concerts.
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