A stealthy war the West is losing

The recent clashes between supporters of Hong Kong’s democracy movement and those claiming to represent to views of the Government in Beijing are at last beginning to raise the debate on Chinese influence in Australia.

For years there have been occasional voices that Australia has become too dependent on the People’s Republic in a number of areas including resources and education.

I have long argued that with China responsible for more than 30 per cent of Australian exports, there is a need to change that market profile, not necessarily by cutting back on the China trade, but to make it less important to the national wellbeing through diversification.

This can and should be done by becoming more active in south-east Asia and India whose huge potential has been overlooked and downplayed. If a no-deal Brexit happens, the United Kingdom coming cap-in-hand looking for Australia to bail it out could be another lucrative source.

For too long our so-called captains of industry have been too busy sucking on the China teat to exploit other possibilities.

This was summed up by the negative reaction of many business leaders when Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie likened the world’s approach to China as similar to the failure to contain the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

That comparison is a little over the top, but it expressed the frustration of Hastie and others at the general indifference to China’s growing involvement in Australia’s political and social affairs.

This has been done through a proliferation of apparently innocuous groups that invariably have ‘peaceful’ and ‘friendship’ as part of their titles.

In his recent book, Silent Invasion, Clive Hamilton writes that many of these organisations have direct links with the Chinese Government though that country’s consulates and embassy in Australia.

He notes that the massive and intimidating presence of pro-Beijing students during the passage of China’s Olympic torch through Canberra in 2008 was a direct result of a call from these diplomatic posts, which paid to transport the students from the major cities.

It was an early warning of the way things were going — one that has been largely ignored.

Now the call is being answered again in a bid to silence the voice of Hong Kong people and their supporters in Australia who believe the pro-democracy movement in the city has true grievances and the response by the authorities out of all proportion in its brutality.

Hastie’s comments drew a sour response from a business community with both eyes on its bottom line, but he is far from alone in his concerns.

The Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, at a conference of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, spoke of a “strategic and operational mismatch” between authoritarian States such as China and Russia, and the West.

“The authoritarian States possess deep traditions and cultures of offensive political warfare,” Campbell said. It was a war in which they were winning victories.

“By contrast, most decision-makers in the West still consider themselves to be in a state of peace and are not inclined to initiate actions that, they fear, Moscow or Beijing might consider provocative.”

He hoped that the West would wake up to this, but even if they did they would be “late to the battlefield” of political warfare.

These warning are clear, there is a war going on, fought with campaigns of coercion, propaganda and not so subtle threats of economic blackmail. It is not taking place in far off lands but in the streets, boardrooms and even in the parliaments of Australian cities.

It is being aided and abetted by Australians who for various reasons, some quite honest, others not so honest, believe it would be better for everyone if the white flag was hoisted.

For those who think this would be a wholly bad thing that should be resisted, time is running out.