China makes no secret about wanting to become the world’s No. 1 superpower. The regime in Beijing is increasing its drive for world domination in every possible way, some obvious and some much more covert.
The regime is also flexing its military muscle in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and aggressively expanding its “soft power” influence through politics, business, property developments, education, and even pop culture to replace the United States as the most powerful country in the world.
There are also fears that the Gold Coast City Council was hasty in giving tentative planning approval, due to the development application’s apparent disregard for community consultation on the project’s effect on the environment, wildlife, traffic, and future major flood implications. Council is considering the application, despite Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate saying in November 2018 that there would be no development on the floodplain. This raises the question: Why is the council even considering the proposal in the first place?
It seems the CCP will use both obvious and more subtle means to gain footholds in as many countries and in as many ways as possible, regardless of the ramifications for those countries and their citizens. Why should China attack a country when it can just buy?
The subsidiary of a privately owned Chinese company, Landbridge Group, in 2016 took out a 99-year lease on Darwin Port in the Northern Territory. After Australia’s former trade minister, Andrew Robb, helped this deal reach fruition, he quit politics to become a consultant for Landbridge.
Likewise, what guarantee is there that China won’t use its financial position to grow its influence and control within countries that finance projects in China through the One Belt, One Road initiative and are no longer able to repay their debts? That raises questions about Australia’s role in helping to fund China’s global expansion and also the consequences of keeping a top human-rights abuser as our biggest trading partner.
Some Australians feel China is not our problem and, as long as the Chinese are paying, it’s fine to blissfully ignore this supposed threat because it doesn’t concern us—they are so very wrong.
There is still confusion, especially from within the Australian-Chinese expatriate community, about the meaning of China as a country, due to many decades of Marxist propaganda. The word China doesn’t necessarily imply the Chinese people. China should be separated from Chinese authorities and, particularly, the CCP.
To this end, the CCP-backed Confucius Institutes are adding to the confusion by setting-up free or low-cost Chinese culture and language classes at Australian universities and high schools that repeat Beijing’s stance on sensitive topics such as human rights, Falun Gong, Tibet, and Taiwan independence, among others.
Western intelligence agencies have warned that the institutes are used as part of the Chinese regime’s apparatus to gain influence abroad, operating through the CCP’s Office of Chinese Language Council International, also known as Hanban. Confucius Institutes are accused of brainwashing young people into becoming supporters, promoters, and future leaders in the CCP, even though it only advertises as an educational organization to spread Chinese culture and language.