Is an ‘antisemitic’ CCP DeepSeeking Aussie data? – Anti-China Media Watch
Jan 31, 2025
This week’s big China threat story is DeepSeek, an Open-Source AI (artificial intelligence) platform that the alarmists are signalling is further proof China is stealing our personal data. Those shouting loudest are the right-wing free marketeers but what are we to make of Wall Street greeting the rise of DeepSeek by wiping $1 trillion off the value of, chip maker, Nvidia in just one day?
Deep-seeking balance
China and personal data, a recipe to whip up a storm of half-truths, misinformation and misplaced context. DeepSeek is an AI platform that is an alternative to ChatGPT. The deep impact of DeepSeek rests on several factors, one conveniently ignored by the China alarmists is that it is an open-source platform. This means its source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Others have access to the code and can do whatever they want with it; thus, it becomes their program and not a Chinese platform in the clutches of the evil CCP.

The reason, earlier this week, that news of DeepSeek wiped one-fifth of the value off US chip maker Nvidia is basically two-fold. It was reportedly created for a tiny cost of $9 million, versus hundreds of millions for its US rival, and developed without the need for Nvidia’s top line chips. It was Wall Street that deemed the real threat from DeepSeek is that China has the ability to outmanoeuvre US tech giants, hence the big hit to Nvidia stock.
The markets treated DeepSeek as a business story, the usual suspects in the mainstream media called it a sinister threat. Nine Newspapers (28/01/25) ran the headline: ‘Same as TikTok’: Cybersecurity warning for AI app DeepSeek. Extensively quoted in that article is Alastair MacGibbon who, according to his website, is Australia’s foremost cyber security leader.
A former AFP (Australian Federal Police) officer appointed eSafety Commissioner and national cyber security adviser, MacGibbon proclaimed, “Anything we enter into DeepSeek is going straight into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” He is now Chief Strategy Officer of private cybersecurity firm CyberCX, does he not have a commercial interest in whipping up foreign state cyber threats? More importantly did Nine Newspapers not have a duty to question the veracity of MacGibbon’s sweeping claim?
Proper journalism should at least acknowledge that the vast majority of DeepSeek applications will be entirely innocuous and of no interest to the Chinese or any other government. It’s yet another instance of “Bad China” grabbing the headlines.
The story quotes the ever-reliable Victorian LNP Senator James Paterson who warns that DeepSeek will retain user data. Google’s terms make it abundantly clear that the US giant retains the data of its users, as does Microsoft with its Outlook email and OneDrive storage, both of which are storing the draft text of this article!
On the Murdoch front, Peta Credlin used her Sky After Dark slot (28/01/25) to announce DeepSeek is, “another way for Beijing to further exert control over western nations.” Her guest to advance that proposition was Michael Shoebridge, Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, which he co-founded with his former Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) boss Peter Jennings.
The Australian (29/01/25) chimed in with the sensationalist headline [paywall] “DeepSeek threat: ‘act now or be obliterated’, Tech Council warns”. The first sentence of that article states, “DeepSeek risks becoming a greater threat to national security than Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, former Victorian innovation minister Phil Dalidakis says.”
The article notes Dalidakis is a partner at “corporate advisory firm” Orizontas. His company is hardly engaged in corporate advisory, it advises clients on defence and national security matters. What better way to drum up business than claiming a platform privately developed in China is a national security threat. Most Australians should be far more concerned about former politicians like Dalidakis peddling their influence at the expense of public interest.
The only substantive criticism of DeepSeek is that it does not answer questions on topics sensitive to the Chinese government. Searches on topics such as Tiananmen Square and Uyghurs yield no results telling users: “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.” Mainstream media trying to conflate Chinese government censorship with wholesale data collection is just a beat up.
The state actor behind antisemitic attacks
Arguably the most absurd proposition advanced by the media in the week gone by was in a video posted by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald (24/01/25) identifying China as a possible state actor funding antisemitic attacks in Australia. The hook for the story was AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw announcing on January 21st that, “We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.”
In the video, Nine Newspapers reporter, Paul Sakkal says, “The media suspicion is that the AFP was referring to a potentially hostile government, such as Iran or China, trying to stir up deep seated and very historic prejudices around Jewish people and antisemitism.”
When has the Chinese government, or the Chinese people, ever been accused of antisemitism? Sakkal did not—and could not—substantiate that line in any way. It appears to be his blatant attempt to stir up deep seated prejudices against China and the Chinese people.
Chinese New Year no longer about family
Wednesday heralded the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Snake with a great deal of positive media coverage on traditions, events and the best Chinese restaurants to visit.
With Nine Newspapers in an apparent push to outflank Murdoch media in the anti-China stakes it relied on chef Adam Liaw to provide his perspective on Chinese New Year under the headline [paywall] “The main purpose of Lunar New Year is to get your life to rain money like in a rap video”.
Liaw, a former MasterChef contestant, now author and SBS cooking show host, writes “The truth is that Lunar New Year is about one thing and one thing only … cold, hard cash.”
One might be a little more sympathetic to his point of view if Liaw wasn’t asking $38 for cookbooks flogging off his recipes, not to mention the cash he picks up for stirring up dishes on a publicly funded broadcaster. Perhaps his cash isn’t cold and hard like a frozen dumpling, but warm and fuzzy like a giant panda.
I have many Chinese friends and personally I found his entire article, and its premise, offensive in the extreme. While it’s an opinion piece, it was, in my opinion, a miserable piece of editorial decision-making by Nine Newspapers to give Liaw column space to belittle Chinese culture and the most important of all festivals celebrated by more than 1.2 million Chinese-Australians.
There’s little doubt it would have been published under the cover that Liaw is an Australian of Chinese heritage. His article is mean spirited and does not devote so much as a line about the importance of Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, to the Chinese people without claiming it’s all connected to money.
For many families it is the one time of the year they can gather together, rich or poor, especially important for the poor who leave their rural homes and work and save hard to make the annual pilgrimage to see their families. Millions are fathers and mothers who’ve left their children behind to be raised by their grandparents only seeing their children for a few short days each year.
Liaw writes, “The main purpose of Lunar New Year is to get your life to rain money like in a rap video, and writing another Lunar New Year article that ignored this point would be like me telling you that the true meaning of Christmas was ham.”
This shameless characterisation is tantamount to me telling readers that lavish Bar Mitzvahs are about nothing other than raining in money on Jewish boys like in a rap video. The mainstream media would never consider publishing such an article—especially now—no matter the author. It’s perfectly acceptable, however, to denigrate the Chinese culture in such a way.