China bans academic Clive Hamilton, analyst Alex Joske

China has banned a prominent academic and a renowned security analyst, despite neither planning to visit the authoritarian state.

Author Clive Hamilton has been banned from China.

China has banned academic Clive Hamilton and security analyst Alex Joske from entering the country, despite neither having any intention of visiting the authoritarian state.

In an “exclusive” report, Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece The Global Times said the pair had been prohibited from entering China following Australia’s revocation of visas for two Chinese academics in September.

Professor Hamilton, the co-author of a new book on the CCP’s global influence operations, tweeted wryly: “There go my travel plans.”

 

Mr Joske, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said while he had grown up in China and would “love to return in better times”, it was a long time since he had held or applied for a Chinese visa.

“I decided years ago that the Chinese government’s actions have made the personal risk from travelling to China too high,” he said.

Chinese scholars Chen Hong and Li Jianjun were stripped of their Australian visas in August on ­national security grounds, in relation to a foreign influence investigation linked to NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane and his adviser John Zhang.

Four Chinese “journalists” were raided by ASIO as part of the same investigation and have since left the country.

Security analyst Alex Joske. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Global Times described Professor Hamilton as an “anti-China scholar”, accusing him of “hyping up China‘s ‘influence’ in Australia” in his books Silent Invasion (2018) and Hidden Hand (2020).

It described Mr Joske’s think tank employer as being “infamous for churning out anti-China propaganda and fabricating anti-China issues”.

Mr Joske said the Global Times report was “the latest in a series of attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to punish those who shine a light on its activities”.

“I am proud of my research on the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to interfere in politics and transfer technology from around the world,” he said.

“The accuracy of my research on these topics has never been seriously challenged by the Chinese government. I will continue to study these globally important issues.”