Beijing Bans Australian Professor and Researcher
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Communist China has barred entry to two "anti-China" Australian scholars, the author of the article in Global Times propaganda newspaper said on Thursday.
The paper, perceived as a loudspeaker of the Chinese Communist Party in the West, identified on Thursday the two as Professor Clive Hamilton and Mr Alex Joske. It added that the decision came after Australia revoked the visas of two Chinese scholars over "alleged infiltration" in early September.
In a 2018 book, Hamilton, a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in the Australian capital, accused China's Communist Party of a campaign to exert influence in Australia's domestic politics. He exposed connections with the Chinese Communist Party and the political and business world in Australia and the United Kingdom.
“I decided two or three years ago that it would be much too dangerous for me to travel to China with the government getting increasingly paranoid and vindictive,” Hamilton told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Professor Hamilton said the article appeared to be retaliation for Australia banning the two Chinese academics.
Raised in China a son of Australian diplomat Mr Joske after leaving University has been employed by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which the Global Times called "infamous for churning out anti-China propaganda and fabricating anti-China issues".
The Institute Exposed Beijing Lies on Xinjiang
China attacked researchers day after the Institute revealed that Beijing has expanded the slave labor camps in East Turkestan, called also Xinjiang and not limited them as it claimed. The Institute published a new report based on the satellite images of the camps.
At least 61 suspected detention facilities showed signs of new construction between July 2019 and July 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (Aspi) said in a report released Thursday.
Some 14 such centres were still under construction this year after Xinjiang authorities said that all detainees had "graduated," said Aspi, an Australia- and US-backed research institute that has been tracking the camp network for more than two years.
The latest Aspi report included satellite imagery and 3D models of four different categories of camps, designated according to security levels.
While the group said it was unable to estimate total number kept in the facilities, they said the new facility in Kashgar appeared large enough to accommodate about 10,000 people.
Protecting interest requires vigilance
The Beijing attack against the freedom of the science and speech comes when the top American politicians are revealing the depth and scope of the Communist China's plan to subjugate the West.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday warned U.S. politicians at the state and local level to be vigilant around Chinese diplomats who he said could be trying to woo them as part of Beijing’s propaganda and espionage campaign.
Speaking in the Wisconsin state capitol, Pompeo said the State Department was reviewing the activities of the U.S.-China Friendship Association and the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification over suspicions they are trying to influence U.S. schools, business groups and local politicians.
The two groups are linked to China’s United Front Work Department, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, he said.
“Know that when you are approached by a Chinese diplomat, it is likely not in the spirit of cooperation or friendship,” Pompeo said, warning of the Chinese Communist Party’s “influence and espionage campaigns” even at the municipal level.
“The federal government can’t police every bit of this predatory and coercive behavior. We need your help... Protecting American interests requires vigilance, vigilance that starts with you--and all state legislators, regardless of party,” he said.