Naivety, greed behind failure to our security

Congratulations to The Australian on its expose of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Western global businesses and sensitive public institutions such as embassies and consulates (“Party insiders in the ranks”, 14/12). It drives me mad when I read that the ANZ states “the bank did not interfere with its employees’ involvement in political groups” and that these people have been able to infiltrate companies such as Boeing, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

While I’m sure the West has been driven by a mixture of naivety and greed, the time has long past when such failure to safeguard national security can be explained away. The CCP demands absolute loyalty from its members wherever they are and under Xi Jinping’s leadership China is embarked on a mission to rule the world — in its eyes, again. CCP members are working slowly but surely to realise Xi’s China Dream. If the shades do not fall from the eyes of our business and political leaders now, we might as well kowtow to China because we will have already lost the war.

Jim Wilson, Beaumont, SA

The Chinese Communist Party is just using the playbook of the old emperors to frighten other nations and make them kowtow (originally a Cantonese word for “act in an excessively subservient manner”) and make them “tremble and obey”.

It’s also called “kill the chicken to frighten the monkey”. This is also an old Chinese idiom. It refers to making an example out of someone in order to threaten others.

It is going to get a lot worse, so Australia should fire up its export agency Austrade and seek other markets in countries that are reputable and honest. We should also take a very hard look at any further and existing Chinese investment here. Being “nice” to China doesn’t work and the continuing bleat of state and opposition politicians to talk won’t work unless it is on China’s terms (kowtow?).

Any political system that condones the death by starvation of up to 50 million of its citizens and atrocities such as the Tiananmen Square massacre is totally untrustworthy and not deserving of respect among civilised nations.

John Makey, Hillarys, WA

If, over decades, Australian governments have sat back and wilfully given the nod to communist China to stamp its bullying, threatening footprint all over this country— from Darwin to our richest agricultural land to our water — then it’s easy to imagine them demonstrating the colossal naivety and slackness revealed in your article “Party insiders in the ranks”. This amounts to something as close to betrayal as it comes. And it is no surprise to those of us who have watched with anguish and rising fury their perfidious behaviour in relation to protecting our precious sovereignty and riches.

Stephanie Millar, Cremorne, NSW

Is there a connection between ANZ fostering a CCP branch in its Chinese operations and the proud declaration of the bank’s chief executive, Shayne Elliott, that he has not lent “a dollar” to coal miners (“I’ve not lent a dollar to coal miners: Elliott”, 3/12)? Surely that investment decision is not in Australia’s national interest and would fit in with what looks like the CCP’s aim to weaken our economy.

Peter Balan, St Peters, SA