Beijing ‘agents of influence’ operating in Tasmania

A network of members of the Chinese Communist Party-linked United Front is operating in Tasmania’s business, political and university sectors, experts allege.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: AFP

A network of members of the Chinese Communist Party-linked United Front is operating in Tasmania, taking its cue from Beijing in spreading CCP propaganda and influence, say several China experts.

Mark Harrison, adjunct director of the Australian National University’s Australian Centre on China in the World, said the Tasmanian network was small but “disproportionately visible”.

“A small number of people in the Chinese community in Tasmania are part of a United Front network,” said Dr Harrison, also senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Tasmania.

“They are not representative of what is actually a very large and diverse community, but they are disproportionately visible.

“Whenever anything happens that Beijing needs to be supported internationally, part of the operation of the United Front is making sure that supporters of Beijing anywhere in the world make statements that validate that policy position.”

China watchers say the United Front Work Department is an arm of the CCP, enlisting influential Chinese at home and abroad who are supportive of CCP aims and willing to help stifle dissent.

This includes backing China’s claims over the South China Sea and Taiwan and its stance against those agitating for human rights in Hong Kong.

Reinvigorated by President Xi Jinping, United Front appears to have expanded in Tasmania in the years since his 2014 visit to the state and subsequent blossoming of Chinese investment and trade.

His s view was backed by author and China expert Clive Hamilton, who accused some Tasmanian politicians of “turning a blind eye”.

“Ever since Xi Jinping’s visit to Tasmania, United Front activity has intensified in that state, and in Hobart in particular,” he said. “It’s been co-ordinated out of the Chinese consulate in Melbourne and there is now a network of CCP agents of influence operating in Hobart’s political, business and university communities.”

Professor Hamilton said several Tasmanians were member of organisations that were “outposts of CCP United Front agencies … They are affiliated with and report to organisations in China like the China Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful National Reunification and the Chinese Overseas Friendship Association.”

A Tasmanian branch of the Australian Council for the Peaceful Reunification of China was launched in state Parliament House in 2017. “They were welcomed with open arms by Tasmanian politicians and we have seen a woeful lack of interest by senior Tasmanian politicians in Canberra’s attempt to root out United Front operatives in Australia,” he said.

The Australian makes no allegation about any individual. There have been ongoing questions about pro-Beijing statements by some prominent Tasmanian-Chinese. Most recently, The Weekend Australian revealed businessman Stephen Tsung, who runs a “One Belt, One Road” consultancy from Hobart, had attacked critics of China’s conduct in Hong Kong as “hypocrites”.