International Australia's Position in Asia-Pacific Geopolitics, as Beijing's Rising Shadow Casts Over Canberra.

[Arkain2K]

Just cancel their student Visas please

Those "Confucious Institutes" are a lot more dangerous than the sheep, I think.

The U.S (and Canada) gave them the boot a long time ago when it became clear that their main purpose is not to teach about Chinese culture, but serves as a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese program in Australian schools under review amid propaganda claims
By Rosemary Bolger | May 8, 2018

The NSW Government has confirmed it is reviewing a Chinese Government-sponsored education program amid claims school children are being exposed to propaganda.

The Confucius Classrooms program is being taught in 13 public schools across the state by teaching assistants appointed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Critics, including Charles Sturt University's public ethics professor Clive Hamilton, say the Confucius Classrooms program is being used to spread Communist propaganda.

“The objective of the Confucius Classroom is to spread a positive image of Communist Party rule in China. And so anything that might be a negative to detract from Communist Party history in China is whited out, students don’t hear about it,” Professor Hamilton told SBS News.

The Chinese education program was an initiative of Hanban's Confucius Institute in Beijing.

In previous years, the institute hosted school principals in China for over a week - funding food, accommodation and travel in the country.



To qualify for the junket, principals needed to express an interest in setting up Confucius Classrooms in their own schools when they returned home.

This year’s trip was postponed while the NSW Education Department conducted a review into its relationship with the Confucius Institute.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes said he wanted to ensure the education system is independent and maintains high standards of integrity.

"There are some questions that we need to ask, and while those questions are being asked we are suspending the trips that the principals have been undertaking, just to allow us to do this review to make sure that the program, its objective and its mission accords with community standards", Mr Stokes said.

Confucius Classrooms had been established in 13 schools across NSW.

The schools were promised thousands of dollars’ worth of learning materials and a $10,000 start-up grant in exchange for allowing Chinese government-appointed teachers to assists in classrooms as “native speakers”.

A Hanban news article from September last year reported, since its founding in 2004, the Confucius Institute had set up more than 1,000 primary and secondary school 'Confucius Classrooms' in 142 countries, with 2.1 million students.

In 2016, questions were raised in NSW over the appropriateness of outsourcing school lessons to a foreign government body.

Sam Dastyari, who resigned from federal parliament last year over his links to China, was general secretary of the NSW Labor Party when the deal to start the Confucius Classrooms program was struck by the then-Labor state government.

NSW Primary Principals Association President Phil Seymour said, while it's important to form ties with China and other Asian countries, principals are advised to tread carefully before accepting junkets from foreign institutions.

“I would always talk to our senior officers in the department beforehand,” Mr Seymour said.

Charles Sturt University’s Professor Hamilton called for Australian universities that engage with the Confucius Institute to conduct their own reviews into the organisation’s role in Australian tertiary education.

"They're not the innocent cultural centres that they claim to be but have a propaganda purpose for the Communist Party, and the sooner Australian Universities wake up to that fact and close down their Confucius Institutes the better," Professor Hamilton said.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/chinese...n-schools-under-review-amid-propaganda-claims

 

[Soul Crusher]

This thread got racist real fast.

You're not questioning diversification now are you?

 

[LatFlare]

What about you? Always Liberal? Don't bother to number all the candidates?

Lately yes. While i understand your rationale for voting the independents, i disagree with the principle of a minority independent exploiting the hung parliament.

 

[LatFlare]

This thread got racist real fast.

You're not questioning diversification now are you?

Beat it m8.

 

[Soul Crusher]

Beat it m8.

The Chinese are taking over and this is your response?

I guess the diversification brainwashing in Australia is just as strong as it is in Canada, the US, the UK, Western Europe and Scandinavia.

 

[Ruprecht]

Those "Confucious Institutes" are a lot more dangerous than the sheep, I think.

The U.S (and Canada) gave them the boot a long time ago when it became clear that their main purpose is not to teach about Chinese culture, but serves as a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese program in Australian schools under review amid propaganda claims
By Rosemary Bolger | May 8, 2018

The NSW Government has confirmed it is reviewing a Chinese Government-sponsored education program amid claims school children are being exposed to propaganda.

The Confucius Classrooms program is being taught in 13 public schools across the state by teaching assistants appointed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Critics, including Charles Sturt University's public ethics professor Clive Hamilton, say the Confucius Classrooms program is being used to spread Communist propaganda.

“The objective of the Confucius Classroom is to spread a positive image of Communist Party rule in China. And so anything that might be a negative to detract from Communist Party history in China is whited out, students don’t hear about it,” Professor Hamilton told SBS News.

The Chinese education program was an initiative of Hanban's Confucius Institute in Beijing.

In previous years, the institute hosted school principals in China for over a week - funding food, accommodation and travel in the country.



To qualify for the junket, principals needed to express an interest in setting up Confucius Classrooms in their own schools when they returned home.

This year’s trip was postponed while the NSW Education Department conducted a review into its relationship with the Confucius Institute.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes said he wanted to ensure the education system is independent and maintains high standards of integrity.

"There are some questions that we need to ask, and while those questions are being asked we are suspending the trips that the principals have been undertaking, just to allow us to do this review to make sure that the program, its objective and its mission accords with community standards", Mr Stokes said.

Confucius Classrooms had been established in 13 schools across NSW.

The schools were promised thousands of dollars’ worth of learning materials and a $10,000 start-up grant in exchange for allowing Chinese government-appointed teachers to assists in classrooms as “native speakers”.

A Hanban news article from September last year reported, since its founding in 2004, the Confucius Institute had set up more than 1,000 primary and secondary school 'Confucius Classrooms' in 142 countries, with 2.1 million students.

In 2016, questions were raised in NSW over the appropriateness of outsourcing school lessons to a foreign government body.

Sam Dastyari, who resigned from federal parliament last year over his links to China, was general secretary of the NSW Labor Party when the deal to start the Confucius Classrooms program was struck by the then-Labor state government.

NSW Primary Principals Association President Phil Seymour said, while it's important to form ties with China and other Asian countries, principals are advised to tread carefully before accepting junkets from foreign institutions.

“I would always talk to our senior officers in the department beforehand,” Mr Seymour said.

Charles Sturt University’s Professor Hamilton called for Australian universities that engage with the Confucius Institute to conduct their own reviews into the organisation’s role in Australian tertiary education.

"They're not the innocent cultural centres that they claim to be but have a propaganda purpose for the Communist Party, and the sooner Australian Universities wake up to that fact and close down their Confucius Institutes the better," Professor Hamilton said.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/chinese...n-schools-under-review-amid-propaganda-claims

Clive Hamilton is far from an objective source on Chinese interference and influence. He's selling a book, one which is a new twist on old themes.
Funnily enough, the authoritarian laws he proposes would actually have a greater impact on American sponsored groups here than on the Chinese.
Because there's more American investment money...

https://theconversation.com/book-re...-invasion-chinas-influence-in-australia-93650
https://www.australianbookreview.co...na-s-influence-in-australia-by-clive-hamilton
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the...or-all-the-wrong-reasons-20180227-p4z1x7.html
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ar...n/news-story/6e932325c519f0c4a5b8ebd4fbd9e989

 

[LatFlare]

The Chinese are taking over and this is your response?

I guess the diversification brainwashing in Australia is just as strong as it is in Canada, the US, the UK, Western Europe and Scandinavia.

Na i misunderstood where you were coming from.

 

[LatFlare]

Clive Hamilton is far from an objective source on Chinese interference and influence. He's selling a book, one which is a new twist on old themes.
Funnily enough, the authoritarian laws he proposes would actually have a greater impact on American sponsored groups here than on the Chinese.
Because there's more American investment money...

https://theconversation.com/book-re...-invasion-chinas-influence-in-australia-93650
https://www.australianbookreview.co...na-s-influence-in-australia-by-clive-hamilton
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the...or-all-the-wrong-reasons-20180227-p4z1x7.html
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ar...n/news-story/6e932325c519f0c4a5b8ebd4fbd9e989

even if Clive is a boob, why would we need Chinese govt sponsored programs in Aus schools?

 

[Ruprecht]

even if Clive is a boob, why would we need Chinese govt sponsored programs in Aus schools?

Yeah, they shouldn't be integrated with our schools and universities, and they are a propaganda operation, but then so are all those institutes/councils/programs (Goethe-Insitut, Alliance Francaise, Instituto Cervantes, British Council etc etc).
My issue with Clive is that he's an alarmist. He presents Chinese soft power as a prelude to an invasion/takeover, and labels anyone that thinks economic development is the best way to deal with China as an "appeaser".

 

[LatFlare]

Chinese soft power as a prelude to an invasion/takeover

What do you think its a prelude to?

What do you think they are reclaiming those islands for in theSC sea? To build a couple of holiday resorts? C'mon..

 

[Arkain2K]

Australia Weighs the Cost of Resisting China's Meddling
By Jason Scott | May 9, 2018

Li Keqiang in Sydney in March 2017​

When Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Australia in March 2017, he had a clear message for policy makers: There’s no need to pick sides between Washington and Beijing.

More than a year later, that’s becoming ever harder for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. A slew of recent media reports showed that China’s Communist Party was covertly meddling with media, universities and lawmakers, prompting a public outcry.

Turnbull responded by backing new legislation to clamp down on foreign interference in politics and business, which may be put to a vote in the coming weeks. In December, he used broken Mandarin to paraphrase a quote attributed to Chairman Mao Zedong during China’s founding, saying “the Australian people stand up and assert their sovereignty.”

The heightened tensions have unleashed a debate in Australia over the societal costs of increased economic dependence on China. The foreign interference bill will test the willingness of Australia’s politicians to sacrifice business opportunities to make a stand for a rules-based world order underpinned by its military alliance with the U.S.

Beijing’s Dominance

Over the past decade, China has become Australia’s top trading partner, biggest provider of foreign students and largest source of tourism revenue. China accounted for 29 percent of Australia’s two-way commerce in 2016, nearly double from a decade earlier, as it snatched up Australia’s iron ore and coal to feed a construction boom.

Mandarin is now Australia’s second-most spoken language, seen by traffic signs on tourist roads that feature Chinese characters. Celebrations for Chinese New Year, once confined to the Chinatowns of major cities, are now a common feature in suburban centers and regional towns.

“China understands it can use economic leverage to get us to shift our foreign policy and turn down our rhetoric,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and a former adviser to the government on defense policy. “Everyone has long understood what China is about; the difference is, now we are starting to fight back.”

On a visit to New Zealand this week, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called China’s efforts to gain influence in foreign countries “a new global battle.” She said Chinese interference in domestic policy was apparent in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., the Guardian reported.

China fired back on Tuesday, with foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang saying statements about Beijing’s “so-called political interference” have been “floating around for quite some time.”

“China is opposed to interference in another country’s affairs and we will not do that,” Geng said. “Such statements are nonsense, groundless and are meant to stir up trouble.”

In many ways, it’s natural for a rising China to expand its influence in the region as the U.S. questions the benefits of a global leadership role. And some unease is to be expected, particularly with China’s increasingly strong economic and military clout.

Deals Stalled

Still, the business community is concerned. Patrick Hutchinson, chief executive of the Australian Meat Industry Council, said he’s worried the mounting tensions are to blame for delays in a deal Li signed last year paving the way for more than $300 million of annual Australian beef and lamb exports to China.

“Everything was signed, and we moved forward -- now we’re seeing the protocols are taking far longer than expected,” said Hutchinson. “It’s like a marriage -- occasionally you say the wrong thing, and you pay for it.”

Australia’s government declined to give a reason for the holdup, with the Department of Agriculture and Water saying “market access negotiations are confidential, complex and do take time.”

Other industries are also on edge. Universities in Australia, where about a third of all overseas students are Chinese, flinched when Beijing’s embassy in Canberra in December warned of “a rising number of insulting incidents” against the 231,000 students in the country. That came after the head of Australia’s intelligence agency said authorities needed be “very conscious” of foreign interference in universities.

China has overtaken New Zealand to become the largest source of international visitors. Tourists from China soared 14 percent last year, adding A$10.4 billion into Australian coffers.

“I’m worried about my business in China if the relationship continues to deteriorate,” said Kevin Zhang, chief executive officer of Australia’s Argyle Hotel Group, which has most of its dozens of hotels in the Asian country. “The economic and trade relations between the two countries cannot be separated from politics.”

Tensions began to escalate last year when Senator Sam Dastyari, an opposition lawmaker, resigned over close ties with a Chinese-born businessman. Dastyari asked the businessman to pay a $1,200 travel bill, and warned that his phones were being tapped by Australian intelligence agencies.

Turnbull cited that “betrayal” in introducing his foreign-interference laws, which if passed will ban foreign political donations and require people or organizations acting in the interests of overseas powers to register and disclose their ties.

‘Least Friendly’

China has pushed back, with its foreign ministry rebuking Turnbull for helping “poison” the relationship. A survey conducted by the Communist Party-backed Global Times in December showed 60 percent of respondents believed Australia was the least friendly country to China, with the newspaper saying Chinese students and executives "have been depicted as spies or government agents.”

“Certain people in Australia have failed to discard the zero-sum mentality and are unable to look at and handle its relations with China in a correct way,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on March 23.

Australian media outlets have run stories on a diplomatic freeze, with reports saying China canceled a planned visit to Beijing by Turnbull in March. The two nations are trying to work through “complex and difficult issues,” Frances Adamson, the head of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told a parliamentary hearing in March.

China stands ready to use its trade leverage to hit Australia if ties deteriorate further, said Gao Zhikai, a former diplomat and the director of the China National Association of International Studies in Beijing.

"China can easily find a replacement for Australian products, but Australia cannot find a market with a size like China,” he said.

Testing Times

Upon taking power in 2015, Turnbull toughened up Australia’s stance against China by criticizing its expansionist policies in the South China Sea. Five months later his government cited the growth of “China’s national power” to bolster defense spending.

Still, Turnbull has sought to strike a balance. Australia has resisted President Donald Trump’s request to join the U.S. in naval patrols testing China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

At a February briefing in Washington with Trump, Turnbull said that he sees China’s rise as “overwhelmingly a positive” while imploring it to follow a rules-based system where “big countries can’t push around little countries.”

Australian exporters are praying for a speedy resolution, said Doug Ferguson, KPMG’s Sydney-based deal adviser who lived in China for a decade.

“There’s no other market that can compare or can fill the gap if we don’t get our long-term strategy right with China,” he said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...weighs-the-cost-of-resisting-china-s-meddling

 

[ShinkanPo]

What do you think its a prelude to?

What do you think they are reclaiming those islands for in theSC sea? To build a couple of holiday resorts? C'mon..

Some people say its okay because those missiles in those islands is only aimed againts the united states.

 

[Magooglie]

Australia will be forced to be China's little buddy

 

[Soul Crusher]

Na i misunderstood where you were coming from.

My apologies, good sir! With progress running amok I should have /sarcasm.

 

[Arkain2K]

Australia hikes Pacific aid as China pushes into area
It pledges over $1.3b and refocuses aid plans amid worries over strategic balance in region
May 11, 2018​

SYDNEY • Australia is refocusing its foreign aid programmes in a move to win hearts and minds in the island nations of the Pacific, as an increasingly assertive China flexes its muscles in the region.

It has pledged more than A$1.3 billion (S$1.3 billion) - a rise of A$200 million from last year and its largest ever aid commitment to the Pacific - to fund projects including an undersea communications cable to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The government said the reorientation of aid priorities, revealed in a budget on Tuesday, reflected "the fundamental importance to Australia of the stability and economic progress of Pacific island countries".

Canberra and other regional capitals have become increasingly alarmed at China's push into the Pacific which could potentially upset the strategic balance in the region.

Australia's Lowy Institute estimates China provided US$1.78 billion (S$2.38 billion) in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006 and 2016.

And reports last month - which were denied - said Beijing wanted to establish a permanent military base in Vanuatu.

The extra A$200 million in aid, which will also go towards a new High Commission in Tuvalu, means the Pacific now represents some 30 per cent of Canberra's total aid budget, which stood still at A$4.2 billion. Aid agencies were quick to criticise the freeze in overall aid funding, at just 0.23 per cent of national income despite a significant boost to government revenues from a pick-up in commodity prices and employment growth.

"This budget was an opportunity to show leadership and use some of the unexpected revenue to repair past damage to aid," said Australian Council for International Development chief executive Marc Purcell.

In contrast, neighbour New Zealand this week announced a significant rise to foreign aid, delivering A$668 million in extra funding over the next four years, largely directed at the Pacific.

Meanwhile Australia, a US ally, is also concerned over the expansion of Chinese military influence in the disputed South China Sea.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said any military build-up would run counter to China's commitments, in an apparent reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2015 pledge not to militarise the waters.

China has landed a military plane on the last of its three airstrips in the South China Sea, Washington-based research institution Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said this week. Satellite images from April 28 showed the first confirmed deployment of a military aircraft - a Shaanxi Y-8 transport plane - on Subi Reef. The structure hosts one of three runways China has built as part of a massive dredging and reclamation operation in the Spratlys chain since 2013, and was the last of three where military aircraft had been observed.

About 100 Philippine civilians and a small military garrison are stationed on the Thitu islet, about 12 nautical miles away from Subi.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was not aware of the situation described by AMTI.

China claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea, a US$5 trillion-a-year shipping route where five other countries including the Philippines and Vietnam also have claims.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australia-hikes-pacific-aid-as-china-pushes-into-area

 

[Ruprecht]

What do you think its a prelude to?

What do you think they are reclaiming those islands for in theSC sea? To build a couple of holiday resorts? C'mon..

Every nation uses soft power as part of their foreign policy. The Chinese are much less aggressive with it compared to the US or Russia, especially in terms of propaganda (their development loans are comparable to US aid).
No, I don't think the Chinese are planning an invasion. Soft power is an alternative to hard power, not a prelude. They aren't extending their influence through development with investment and loans throughout the pacific Islands as a prelude to invading them. It would cost too much and net them nothing. They don't need to, it's an economic hegemony they are extending.
China has enough trouble hanging on to their border states, let alone their border contests with Japan, Taiwan and India. There's a big difference between A2/AD and mounting an invasion.

 

[Andy Capp]

ehhh I think we are much much closer in cultural and ideology to the US than we are to the Commonwealth countries

Closer to the US than it is to Canada? I don't think so.

 

[Andy Capp]

FWIW, some in Canada share the concern about Chinese influence. Massive amounts of Chinese money are pouring into the country and they are buying up real estate left and right, raising prices practically from coast to coast.

 

[Deleted member 457759]

Australia has liberalized just in time for China to strategically flood the country with immigrants for political influence lol.

Aaaah liberals......

 

[Deleted member 457759]

FWIW, some in Canada share the concern about Chinese influence. Massive amounts of Chinese money are pouring into the country and they are buying up real estate left and right, raising prices practically from coast to coast.

That's racist!!!

Interesting how there isnt one east Asian in Trudeaus cabinet.