Chinese Communist Party-linked minions are being employed to quash Dutton’s hopes of electoral victory; LNP senator free to make spy allegations; Chinese-built tugboats threaten our sovereignty; and the awful truth emerges – most Australians don’t fear China.

In the dying days of a flagging election campaign, Nine Newspapers is complicit in the Liberal Party’s appeal to xenophobia in order to win back the seat of Kooyong from independent Dr Monique Ryan. A report headlined “Watch: Group with historical CCP links ‘required’ Chinese Australians to vote for Ryan” is rubbish and supported by half-truths and innuendo.

In the story (28 April), Nine Newspapers mastheads, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, allege that two ethnically Chinese volunteers for the Ryan campaign were handing out pre-poll how-to-vote cards under the direction of a Chinese Communist Party-linked group.

In support of its story, Nine Newspapers relied upon comments from Liberal senator James Paterson, a self-described China “ wolverine”. The Liberal Party’s fingerprints are all over this attempt to smear an independent who holds a once safe Liberal seat. For Nine Newspapers to rely on “dial a quote” Paterson, smacks of bias and sloppy journalism.

Paterson is, in my strong opinion, a bigot and totally incapable of accepting the complexities of the Australia-China relationship. In 2021, he used parliamentary privilege to claim I was involved in a Chinese state-backed misinformation campaign – I’m still pretty raw about that!

While I am bound by certain clauses in a Deed of Release, I took the matters to which he referred (though he was not directly connected) to the Federal Court and it is now a notorious fact that taxpayers were left to foot the bill for a settlement clearly in my favour.

It is rank hypocrisy that Paterson singles out supporters of Dr Ryan while his leader, Peter Dutton, and two former Liberal prime ministers, John Howard and Tony Abbott, have appeared numerous times on Chinese language social media during this election campaign, soliciting votes from the Chinese Australian community.

The allegation that the two Chinese Australian volunteers on the Ryan campaign were there under the explicit direction of a group linked to the Chinese Communist Party is not supported by any facts.

A woman in a social media video re-produced by Nine Newspapers says in English that “friends told me she [Dr. Ryan] is very good”; later, in Chinese, she mentions that community leader, Ji Jianmin, told her to support Ryan. While “told” is the exact translation, it was taken out of context suggesting she was acting under some directive when most likely she was told she “should” not “must” support Dr Ryan.

The other person in the video, a man, spoke in both English and Chinese and was unambiguous that his support for Dr Ryan was solely based on her policies.

Nine Newspapers did not seek comment from Ji, nor provide any proof he has ever been engaged in foreign interference. The story claims research from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute shows that the group Ji is president of, the Australian Hubei Association, is part of the CCP-linked United Front Work Department. Nowhere in ASPI’s major report on the United Front is there any reference to, or mention of, the Hubei Association.

It’s classic piss-poor anti-China stuff; half-witted journalists are told that an ASPI report backs up allegations of foreign interference, but do the hacks ever bother to look at the reports to confirm that ASPI actually said what they are claiming?

Now Labor Minister Claire O’Neil is mixed up in the controversy

Two days later (30 April), The Australian reported that Minister for Housing, Claire O’Neil, had volunteers on her campaign also linked to the Hubei Association. According to the report, 10 Chinese Australian election-day volunteers were asked to excuse themselves from O’Neil’s campaign after it was revealed they had links to the association. The Australian provided no explanation as to the exact nature of those links, just the suggestion they must be sinister – presumably because the individuals involved are ethnically Chinese.

While an election-eve storm in a Chinese teacup, at least The Australian had the journalistic integrity to seek comment from Ji Jianmin. He told the Murdoch newspaper, “I have lived in Australia for 29 years and became an Australian citizen on 26 January 2022.

“We are Australian citizens. We uphold Australian values. We serve and contribute to Australia, this is our responsibility and duty. If fulfilling our obligations as Australian citizens leads to Chinese communities being maliciously distorted, slandered, and defamed, then what justice is left?”

Well said, and at least (unlike Nine Newspapers) The Australian let him say it.

The Australian report — which also got a run on Sky News and earned a brief reference on Seven’s Sunrise program — did not provide any proof or evidence to support even the suggestion that the Hubei Association’s members are engaged in any acts of foreign interference.

Seven lets LNP senator Jane Hume get away with Chinese spy allegations

On the Seven Network’s _Sunrise_ (30 April), which is barely more than infotainment, LNP Senator Jane Hume whined, in an interview involving her and O’Neil, that the Labor MP had engaged Chinese agents in her campaign, saying “there might be Chinese spies that are handing out [how to votes] for you.”

Hume effectively alleged O’Neil is engaged in espionage and a proper journalist should have immediately demanded proof from Hume – and then pressed hard until she came up with an answer. Interviewer, Natalie Barr simply asked O’Neil to respond to the allegation, and it was left at that.

The China issue aside, in this era of journalism, politicians know they can say whatever they like without facing any questions challenging their claims.

Pull the other one, Chinese tugboats risk national security?

ABC’s defence correspondent, Andrew Greene, exclusively revealed (24 April) on Anzac Day eve that a small fleet of tugboats destined to move Australian naval vessels around are being “secretly built at a Chinese shipyard under a $28 million contract awarded last year to a Dutch company".

As with so many media exclusives, quite comical images of the tugboats, secretly built in Chinese shipyards, were sourced — wait for it —from the shipbuilder’s website. Just why do these Chinese-linked groups continue to post the details of their subversive activities online?

Surely, according to the mainstream media, China’s espionage community gets the bulk of its training from watching Monty Python sketches?

Buried in Greene’s report is a statement from defence that the tugs are not military vessels and will be operated by civilian crews. Opposition defence spokesperson (or, out of respect to his anti-wokeness, spokesman), chimes in with his tsk-tsk that the government has serious questions to answer.

A question that’s worth pondering is: how many participants in this alarmist report conveyed their views on Chinese-made iPhones? 

 ABC reports Australians less concerned about China than the US

In what surely must be, for some at “Aunty” (aka the ABC), a bitter pill to swallow, the broadcaster carries a report (30 April) that almost twice as many Australians agree we should have closer ties with China (32.4%) than those who think we should draw closer to the US (17.8%). The report is fairly balanced, seeking views on either side of the US and China debates, but it’s yet again proof that, despite what the mainstream media thinks, most Australians are not fearful of China or the Chinese diaspora in Australia.

The anti-China crowd is utterly delusional if it believes what goes on in Australia keeps Chinese Communist Party officials awake at night.