The Malign Influence of a World Heavyweight

"We are not troops, but this task is a bit like the nature of troops."
"This is a war, with lots of battles."
Gu Xiaojie, Chinese diplomat

"[Chinese officials and investors] put the weights on the relevant Australian executives."
"The whole idea at that stage was to maximize business lobby pressure on the government."
Kevin Rudd, former Australian prime minister

"We can see how China is trying to be able to influence public life, business life and academic life in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. The bits and pieces disclosed in the Meng Wanzhou incident are exactly the same as what was mentioned in the book [Claws of the Panda]."
"This invisible penetration of Western countries is terrible. Do you ask me whether China is dangerous? I said that the Chinese people are not dangerous, but the Chinese Communist Party is absolutely dangerous and terrible."
“This [Meng Wanzhou incident] is a very important and positive wake-up call for Canadian political leaders and ordinary Canadians, that we have to adjust and revisit our relations with China. Dealing with China should depend on reality and cannot be based on our own expectations."
Jonathan Manthorpe, veteran Canadian journalist

China's President Xi Jinping, left, and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attend the session on women's workforce participation, future of work, and aging societies, at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on Saturday. (Kazuhiro Nogi/pool via Reuters)

Chinese diplomat Gu Xiaojie, the consul-general in Sydney, Australia gave an impassioned nationalistic speech to a gathering of Australian residents and citizens of Chinese ancestry, appealing to their patriotic sense of duty to their home nation. That they should be prepared to honour the presence of visiting Chinese prime minister Li Keqiang as their obligation as faithful Chinese. And to recognize that obligation to report to the consulate the names of any of their compatriots choosing to protest against Beijing during that visit.

This is what China does; appealing to its far-flung, Chinese-born but residing-abroad vast numbers whose influence is sought to help China in its bid for influence and prestige throughout the world as a global powerhouse. To convince citizens of other countries who happen to be Chinese in origin and heritage that their first loyalty must always be to Beijing, to the ruling Chinese Communist Party's universal goal of economic and political power.

The CCP's unrelenting and strident demands on Chinese abroad amounts to persecution in the name of patriotic and ethnic solidarity, a message that is irresistible to many and anathema to many more. Chinese government activities in Australia are relentless, from generously funding universities to gain influence there, to instilling in Chinese students abroad the obligation they have to infiltrate and to convey valuable information back to a specialized branch of the CCP, the United Front Work Department.

Chinese modus operandi to be generous to other nations' institutions, to convey to its Chinese population abroad the necessity to support all Chinese initiatives, to become secret operatives in league with the CCP, to report on those like themselves who are despite that, critical of Beijing. College and University campuses in Canada and elsewhere have experienced the strength of Chinese student group harassment of Uyghurs and Tibetan-originated students understandably critical of Beijing.

The CPC's focus on its geopolitics, on trade and its foreign policy agenda often comes counter to the interests of foreign nations that then experience the steamroller effect of China's power. For Australia, trade with China has given it entry to a long economic boom and while Australian intelligence warns of Beijing's interference in Australian matters, its representatives lobby behind closed doors threatening the economic balance to persuade Australian politicians, its business and academic leaders with 'consequences' if they're 'unreasonable' to China's interests.

Campaign contributions are made by China proxies to exert influence on Australian politics. And while there are many Australians suspicious and fearful of Beijing's intentions, maintaining good relations is recognized as a practical requirement for the continuation of Australia's economic growth along with regional stability. Australian imports and exports to China account for 24 percent of its trade. A figure China is well aware of, using that as a lever for sustained cooperation.

"In no country is there such a profound rift between business community and security", Linda Jakobson of China Matters, a Sydney-based policy group, observes wryly. Australian winemakers know what pressure from Beijing is like when 'problems' arise with their exports to China. An agreement to expand chilled beef exports into China stalled as well, while China delayed coal imports from Australia at some ports in reaction to its refusal to allow Huawei involvement in the country's 5G network, giving Australia a good taste of its trade vulnerability.

A counterpoint to what has occurred in Canada with Beijing's pressure for the release of detained Huawei's executive on a warrant from the U.S. through a Canada-U.S. extradition treaty. In swift retaliation, two Canadians were arrested on charges of endangering Chinese security, another two face death row for drug smuggling, while Canada's canola exports to China have been halted and pork exports have faced the same blackmail tactics.

The detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun has not helped relations between the two countries. Picture: AP

"Canadian businesses have been mesmerized by the fanciful desire to get access to the Chinese market of 1.2 billion people. So addictive has been that hope that they have been largely silent about the persistent theft of their technologies and other intellectual property by Chinese partners."
"More troubling perhaps, the fixation of Canadian businesses on the China market has tended to blind them to far more promising prospects in other parts of Asia."
"Something similar has happened in Canadian colleges and universities. What started as a dream in the 1970s when China opened up to Canadian scholarship has become a nightmare."
"What began as a well-motivated effort to give students from China the skills they needed to develop their country has become something else. Canadian universities have become the crime scenes of technology theft, a trend that is hard to reverse as several academic institutions have become dependent on tuition revenues from Chinese students."
Jonathan Manthorpe, author, Claws of the Panda