By the end of 2020, we had a clear winner in the trade battle which China had started with Australia. Canberra epitomised David from the old story of David versus Goliath as it withstood all the bullying from Beijing. And now, it is in the process of fixing all the loose corners so that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would not find any way to act against Australia. It is well known that China uses its diaspora, especially those who are on assignments in foreign lands to gain operatives and acts of intelligence gathering as well as surveillance.
Australian independent think tank Lowy Institute surveyed the Chinese–Australian population. This survey was commissioned by the Department of Home Affairs under the limited tender. The Australian government is now going full throttle against the attempts of the CCP to use the Chinese diaspora as an asset to further their interests be it by means of building a narrative that is sympathetic to Beijing and borderline patriotic to the party.
The Australian government has decided to take on the CCP’s utilisation of the internet as a medium to build rosy narratives of China ruled by the communists and thus make the Chinese-Australians an easy target of intelligence and technology warfare. The survey does a good job at quantifying the extent of influence of the Chinese Communist Party on the Chinese community of Australia.
As per the survey, 84 per cent use social media giant WeChat for Chinese-language news and 74 per cent read Beijing-controlled outlets Xinhua and People’s Daily, besides, 50 per cent say Australian media reporting on China is too negative. These numbers are a good explanation for the statistics that 71 per cent feel a great or moderate sense of belonging to Australia and 65 per cent feel a sense of belonging to China.
The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison had realised this earlier when Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian had posted a fabricated image depicting an Australian soldier with a bloody knife next to a child on Twitter. Irked by Beijing’s deplorable move, Canberra first demanded an apology but when China didn’t budge, Morrison took to WeChat, China’s popular instant messaging platform. He exposed the Chinese government right before the people of China. Beijing in panic mode tried to censor Australia’s PM by blocking his WeChat message.
Read more: One post by Scott Morrison has rattled China and now WeChat has blocked Morrison’s message
The fact that 84% of the respondents in the survey used WeChat tells us why it becomes all the more important for the Australian government to counter China’s disinformation campaign as it can become a security threat in the long run. Last July, a WeChat chat group was said to be the centre of an alleged foreign influence plot involving MP Shaoquett Moselmane, who was cleared of his wrongdoings.
By mapping patterns of the Chinese-Australians, the Morrison government has successfully understood the pattern of the CCP’s attempts at compromising the sovereignty of Australia. And as Australia has caught the dragon by its throat, China is taken aback with CCP is losing its wits.
