Ex-Australian PM Tony Abbott Hopes Chinese People Will Be Free of ‘Communist Overlordship’

Then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott holds a press conference in Canberra on Sept. 15, 2015. Stefan Postles/Getty Images

OTTAWA—Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he hopes that over time, the Chinese people will be free of the communist regime in China.

“I think that the million or so Australians of Chinese background are over time going to be the agents of Australian influence in China rather than the other way around,” Mr. Abbott said at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa on April 12.

“Because over time, we do have to hope that our brothers and sisters in China lose the yoke of communist overlordship.”

Mr. Abbott’s talk was part of a panel at the conference centred on China’s interference activities. The issue has been in focus in Canada amid intelligence leaks in the media about Beijing’s extensive interference in Canada’s elections and other internal affairs.

Mr. Abbott emphasized that it’s important to distinguish between the Chinese people and the communist regime in China.

“It’s the Chinese regime, the Beijing government, that is the problem,” he said.

‘More Dangerous Cold War’

In his talk, Mr. Abbott said the West is engaged in a new cold war with communist China, one that has higher stakes than the one with the Soviet Union in the last century.

“This is a new and in many ways more dangerous cold war than the old one we successfully won in around 1989,” he said.

“We have to take these dictators seriously when they say that they are determined to take Taiwan. When they say that they want to be the world’s number one power by 2049, they mean it.”

Mr. Abbott, who was prime minister from 2013 to 2015, joked that he may be asking for “absolution” when he says that for the first 18 months of his tenure, he and others were falsely “optimistic” about the Chinese regime changing its ways.

(L-R) Journalist Sam Cooper, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, CEO of NGO Secure Canada Sheryl Saperia, and Conservative MP Michael Chong take part in a panel on foreign interference at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa on April 12, 2024. Omid Ghoreishi/The Epoch Times

But he said starting in 2015, with China’s increased military activity and aggressiveness in the South China Sea, the introduction of the social credit system for increased clampdown on freedoms, and ramped-up persecution of minority groups, it became clear that the regime isn’t changing its ways.

“Now that the scales have well and truly fallen from our eyes, we have got to accept that China is in a full-blown strategic competition with the West,” Mr. Abbott said.

“We’ve got to stop sleepwalking through, … which we’re still currently engaged in.”

Australia Confronting Interference

Mr. Abbott praised the actions of his successors in confronting the risks posed by the Chinese regime.

He noted that Australia was the first country to formally ban China’s Huawei from being part of the nation’s 5G network in 2018. As well, around the same time, the government enacted a foreign agent registration law as part of curbing China’s influence activities in Australia.

Shortly after Australia introduced its legislation, two former cabinet ministers and a premier ceased to work with Chinese regime-linked companies.

Amid heightened reports of Beijing’s extensive interference in Canada, opposition parties have pushed for similar legislation here. The Liberal government has said it has launched consultations on the potential legislation, but so far it hasn’t formally introduced it.

‘Short-Term Financial Interests’

Mr. Abbott pointed out that even with a registry, many will continue their activities undeclared, and that’s a bigger problem.

“The big problem is that too many of our own people have too many commercial interests tied up with China, and it is rather easy to put short-term financial interests of your own ahead of the long-term national interest of your country,” he said.

“It takes a rather strong character to put the country first.”

The other problem, he said, is that China is so “unscrupulous.”

Workers walk past parked high-speed trains at a maintenance yard during a media tour ahead of the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, on Aug. 30, 2018. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

“I think it’s pretty clear that some of the Pacific islands’ parliaments have literally been bought by the Chinese, who will bribe their way through the members of these assemblies.”

Mr. Abbott said the West needs to find a solution to this problem, otherwise it may suddenly see “a bunch of Chinese naval bases in our own region.”

The former leader also said it’s important to pursue a principle of reciprocity when it comes to dealing with the Beijing regime.

“If the Chinese would not allow us to do in their country what they are proposing to do in ours, we don’t allow it,” he said.

“If they wouldn’t let us invest in something, if they wouldn’t let us make a donation because they wouldn’t trust the way it might go, well, same rules here: you can’t invest, you can’t buy, you can’t make donations, etc.”

‘Fastidiousness’

Mr. Abbott said another issue that gives Beijing the upper hand compared to the West is that in regions like Africa, in some cases commercial ventures and investments can’t advance without engaging in “unethical behaviour.”

China now accounts for about 12 percent of Africa’s industrial output, and Chinese companies account for nearly half of the continent’s contracted construction market, says the Africa-based think tank Policy Center for the New South.

The Chinese regime’s increased commercial and military presence in Africa is seen as a geopolitical threat to the West.

According to the Germany-based NGO Transparency International, the majority of Africans say corruption has been on the rise on the continent, with bribery being rampant.

Mr. Abbott said China thrives in such conditions, whereas Western companies can’t because they would be prosecuted by their own governments for crossing ethical lines.

“This is where our own fastidiousness and high mindedness, which is to our credit at one level, is also greatly to our disadvantage at practical levels and this happens all the time,” Mr. Abbott said.

“If Churchill had been an entirely fastidious leader, it might have been impossible to win the Second World War. Sometimes you have to stoop to conquer. How far can you stoop, while at the same time keeping your character? These are difficult challenges that we haven’t as yet adequately answered.”

Canada’s Inquiry

Mr. Abbott praised Canada for holding a public inquiry into foreign interference in elections.

The inquiry was commissioned by the federal government on Sept. 7, 2023, after pressure by opposition parties amid intelligence leaks in the media about China’s widespread interference in Canada’s elections.  A series of government officials and other witnesses have been appearing at the public inquiry over the past few months. The inquiry is scheduled to issue its first report by May 3, 2024.

“You are saying openly what has been whispered behind the hand in Australia for years, namely that there is this comprehensive, multi-modal attempt to infiltrate and suborn systems, institutions, to gain secrets, to harvest data,” he said.

“Maybe your courage in this respect will be good for the rest of us to be more courageous.”

Rewards and Risks

Canadian Conservative MP Michael Chong said that while there may be some items from Canada for Australia to learn, Canada can take many lessons from Australia.

“Australia took a much stronger line on PRC [People’s Republic of China] threats before other democracies did,” Mr. Chong said.

Conservative MP Michael Chong appears as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on April 3, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

“And at the time, Australia was pretty isolated. There were tariffs slapped on Australian red wine exports … [and] Australian coal.”

The move came amid Australia’s stronger stance against Beijing’s interference activities, and as Canberra pushed for an inquiry into the origin of the COVID-19 in China in 2020.

In response, the Chinese regime set escalating import tariffs of up to 218 percent on Australian wine in 2020. In the aftermath, Australian wine makers set out to diversify their markets, while China eventually lifted its tariffs this year.

“We did survive that,” Mr. Abbott said. “A lot of the anxiety turned out to be misplaced.”

Mr. Chong, whose family in Hong Kong has been targeted by China for his outspokenness against the regime’s rights abuses, said thanks to the Australian government’s initiatives, the country is now a “low-reward, high-risk” target from the perspective of China.

In contrast, he said, Canada is a “high-reward, low-risk” target for China.

“We’ve heard from our national intelligence agency that Canada has not only lagged the rest of the Five Eyes alliance including Australia, we have become a low risk, high reward theatre for foreign interference activities,” Mr. Chong said.

Stronger Unity

Mr. Abbott also said that democratic nations need to more closely unite in the face of the Chinese regime.

“I have great faith in countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, which have so much in common and so many ties of history and culture,” he said.

“If we act in a reasonably coordinated and cooperative way, we can change the world for the better.”