Plight of the Uighurs shows the extent of Chinese surveillance

Chinese tech companies operate in the interest of the state.

Your feature (“Chinese eyes in your fridge”, 31/1) raises issues of surveillance by Beijing through Chinese technology companies such as Huawei and ZTE, to advance the interests of the Chinese state.

Although we in Australia are not (yet) being spied on in our homes by our fridges, we could consider the plight of the Uighurs in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, who do indeed have Chinese eyes in their homes.

This surveillance occurs under Beijing’s “pair up and become family” program, begun last year and which has seen more than a million Han Chinese cadres placed in Uighur households.

However, no one should be concerned, because according to Chinese government reports it’s about warm family reunions and affectionate cultural exchanges. Similarly, if Huawei is to be believed, surveillance and espionage concerns about Huawei and ZTE, such as those expressed in your feature article, are little more than an exercise in China bashing.

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East, Vic

Corporate over-reach

Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s long march through the institutions is even more pervasive than that outlined in Kristian Jenkins’s article, (“Gramsci was right and we are failing our students”, 30/1) Alarming as the indoctrination of our young through educational institutions is, equally alarming is the way business has joined the same long march.

This is achieved by a device called “corporate social responsibility” that the Australian Stock Exchange says must be core business for registered companies. Under CSR there is a notional social licence to do business. This social licence can be taken away if a corporation, an executive or an employee offends, perhaps by sponsoring a chat between two intelligent men with different views on a social issue. If we wondered why all those corporations would lend their names to a divisive social issue such as this, it’s the cost of the social licence.

Chief executives seem to have usurped control of the companies of which they are employees, while boards of directors don’t seem to know what is going on.

Frank Pulsford, Aspley, Qld

Terrorist nonsense

George Williams knows the technicalities of the law and believes that the proposed legislation is unworkable (“Citizenship-stripping bill is unworkable nonsense”, 31/1). He points out how convicted terrorists can’t have their citizenship stripped and that this new bill will lead to a legal bunfight with High Court challenges to protect the rights of the individual, as opposed to the rights of society. He also says it will not make our country safer.

I suggest that he and others make sure the proposed bill is legally enforceable, if necessary by withdrawing from international agreements that limit control of our country. It is patent nonsense that allowing a convicted terrorist to return to this country will be without risk to citizens.

Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld

Endemic ignorance

Yumi Stynes tried to smear Kerri-Anne Kennerley as racist yet she could be accused if being racist in implying white people are not eligible to discuss Aboriginal issues (“Indigenous leaders back KAK”, 30/1). Stynes’s ignorance of endemic abuse in many indigenous communities, should disqualify her from having any credible opinion on this subject.

Such delusion is becoming a hallmark of Left activists who similarly deny the truth that our carbon emissions cutbacks will achieve nothing beyond signalling our sham virtue and our stupidity while costing the country billions — billions that might otherwise be spent on protecting indigenous women and children from horrific violence.

Tom Drake-Brockman, Berrilee, NSW