In 2008 Clive Hamilton was at Parliament House in Canberra when the Beijing Olympic torch relay passed through. He watched in bewilderment as a small pro-Tibet protest was overrun by thousands of angry Chinese students. Where did they come from? Why were they so aggressive? And what gave them the right to shut down others exercising their democratic right to protest? The authorities did nothing about it, and what he saw stayed with him.
In 2016 it was revealed that wealthy Chinese businessmen linked to the Chinese Communist Party had become the largest donors to both major political parties. Hamilton realised something big was happening, and decided to investigate the Chinese government’s influence in Australia. What he found shocked him.
From politics to culture, real estate to agriculture, universities to unions, and even in our primary schools, he uncovered compelling evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australia. Sophisticated influence operations target Australia’s elites, and parts of the large Chinese-Australian diaspora have been mobilised to buy access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, collect information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and protest in the streets against Australian government policy. It’s no exaggeration to say the Chinese Communist Party and Australian democracy are on a collision course. The CCP is determined to win, while Australia looks the other way.
Thoroughly researched and powerfully argued, Silent Invasion is a sobering examination of the mounting threats to democratic freedoms Australians have for too long taken for granted. Yes, China is important to our economic prosperity; but, Hamilton asks, how much is our sovereignty as a nation worth?
Author(s): Clive Hamilton
Publisher: Hardie Grant
Year: 2018
Language: English
Commentary: ‘Anyone keen to understand how China draws other countries into its sphere of influence should start with Silent Invasion. This is an important book for the future of Australia. But tug on the threads of China’s influence networks in Australia and its global network of influence operations starts to unravel.’ –Professor John Fitzgerald, author of Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia
Pages: 376
Tags: Australian & Oceanian;International & World Politics;Politics & Government;Politics & Social Sciences;Political Freedom;Specific Topics;Politics & Government;Politics & Social Sciences
Cover Page
Title Page
Preface
1 Dyeing Australia red
2 How China sees itself in the world
‘Brainwashed’
The party is the nation
Sick man no more
‘Twisted patriotism’
The great rejuvenation
China’s claim to Australia
3 Qiaowu and the Chinese diaspora
Mobilising overseas Chinese
Bob Hawke’s gift
The United Front in Australia
Chinese-Australians resist
Contesting Chineseness
Chinese Hansonism
Controlling the news
Chinese voices
The long arm of China’s law
‘They can do anything. They don’t care.’
4 Dark money
Huang Xiangmo in China
China’s crony capitalism
Xi’s corruption crackdown
Huang in Australia
Bipartisan guanxi
Chau Chak Wing
Zhu Minshen
Zhu and the Olympic torch
Zhu’s role in Dastyari’s downfall
Political plants
5 ‘Beijing Bob’
The ‘China-Whatever’ research institute
ACRI under pressure
A true friend of China
Media deals
Credulous journos
6 Trade, invest, control
How dependent are we?
The party-corporate conglomerate
Beijing’s Australia strategy
Trade politics
Assets for sale
One Belt, One Road
The Australian OBOR connection
7 Seduction and coercion
China’s fifth column in Australia
‘China is our destiny’
Norway and the Dalai Lama effect
China’s geoeconomics
Coercing Australia
8 Spies old and new
Spying on ASIO
A thousand spies and informants
Huawei and the NBN
Huawei’s reach
Honey traps
The Fitzgibbon–Liu affair
Hikvision
Cyber theft
Racial profiling
Cyber warriors
9 ‘Malicious insiders’ and scientific organisations
‘Mobilising Ten Thousand Overseas Chinese’
HUMINT (human intelligence)
Professional associations
CSIRO
10 ‘Engineering souls’ at Australia’s universities
Thought management
Funding PLA upgrade
‘Make the foreign serve China’
More PLA collaboration
Carrying the torch at UNSW
Ethnic enclaves
‘Academic malware’: Confucius Institutes
The party in our classrooms
Patriotic students
‘Denounce and inform’
What to do?
11 Culture wars
Chinese voices
Sally Zou’s gold
Real estate woes
Patriot writers
Co-opting God
Chinese Anzacs
The People’s Liberation Army of Australia
Digital totalitarianism
Beijing’s Antarctic designs
12 Friends of China
The China club
The innocents
The ‘realists’
The capitulationists
The pragmatists
Dear friends
The appeasers
Australians against democracy
13 The price of freedom
Images
Acknowledgements
Notes
Copyright Page
