Why do we keep turning a blind eye to China’s political interference?
Academics in Australia might reflect on the fact that scholarly books critical of the Chinese Communist Party are now shunned by publishers. Scholars who work on China know that continued access to the country requires them to play by Beijing’s rules, which for most means self-censorship – the dirty secret of China studies in Australia. […]
Open Letter to David Shoebridge MLC
18 March 2018 Dear David As you know, I was disappointed when you cancelled the launch event for my book that you had enthusiastically agreed to host. I’m more disappointed to read the justification you have given for your actions in your recent Facebook post. I would expect you, as a barrister, to take account […]
I expected to be attacked as racist – just not by Tim Soutphommasane
Published by The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March 2018 When writing my book Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, I expected Communist Party spokespersons in Beijing to attack me as racist and “anti-China”. I didn’t expect people like Tim Soutphommasane, our Race Discrimination Commissioner, to parrot those criticisms in The Age and The Sydney Morning […]
Labor has a cancer growing in it that must be cut out
Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February, 2018 Canberra is finally beginning to push back against Beijing’s long-running campaign to seduce our elites so completely that the nation kow-tows before China’s wishes. The first phase of the pushback culminated in December with the Turnbull government introducing legislation to outlaw foreign interference operations and novel […]
Scholarly intimidation is being imported into Australia under official Communist Party licence in the guise of patriotism
Published in Times Higher Education, 4 January 2018 It’s a truism that we take our freedoms for granted until they are taken away, but recent events have really driven that home to me. In November, my imminent book exposing the subversive activities of the CPC in Australia was dropped by its publisher because it feared […]
The real reason you won’t be reading my new book on China anytime soon
Published in The Age, 28 November 2017 Earlier this month, publisher Allen & Unwin pulled the plug on my book, Silent Invasion: How China is turning Australia into a Puppet State. The book was about to go to the typesetter. It would have been my ninth release with the company. The publisher dropped the book […]
Australian universities are helping China’s military surpass the United States
Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 October 2017 In Beijing, President Xi Jinping is systematically reforming and strengthening the military – part of the Strong Army Dream that is intimately tied to his signature slogan “the China Dream”. But it now seems that this Strong Army Dream is being […]
Political networking the Chinese way – a Sydney MP and his ‘community adviser’
Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 2017 On the night of the 2016 federal election, a beaming Craig Laundy was photographed surrounded by two dozen campaign supporters who had helped him retain the Sydney seat of Reid he had snatched from Labor three years earlier. Laundy has his […]
Australian taxes may help finance Chinese military capability
Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske Published in The Australian, 10 June 2017 For several years the Chinese party-state has been pursuing a co-ordinated program to acquire from abroad advanced military and industrial technology, and to do so by fair means or foul. It now emerges that Australian universities inadvertently are helping to give China the […]
How to Think About 1.5 Degrees
Astonishment was universal last December when the Paris Agreement on climate change included the aspiration to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, a much tougher target than the standard of 2 degrees, now seen as too risky. It was a remarkable triumph for a long campaign by the small island states, proving that […]