Silent Invasion: China’s influence in Australia by Clive Hamilton (PDF)

Description

In 2008 Clive Hamilton was at Parliament House in Canberra when the Beijing Olympic torch relay passed through. He watched in bewilderment as a small pro-Tibet protest was overrun by thousands of angry Chinese students. Where did they come from? Why were they so aggressive? And what gave them the right to shut down others exercising their democratic right to protest? The authorities did nothing about it, and what he saw stayed with him. In 2016 it was revealed that wealthy Chinese businessmen linked to the Chinese Communist Party had become the largest donors to both major political parties. Hamilton realised something big was happening, and decided to investigate the Chinese government’s influence in Australia. What he found shocked him. From politics to culture, real estate to agriculture, universities to unions, and even in our primary schools, he uncovered compelling evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australia. Sophisticated influence operations target Australia’s elites, and parts of the large Chinese-Australian diaspora have been mobilised to buy access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, collect information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and protest in the streets against Australian government policy. It’s no exaggeration to say the Chinese Communist Party and Australian democracy are on a collision course. The CCP is determined to win, while Australia looks the other way. Thoroughly researched and powerfully argued, Silent Invasionis a sobering examination of the mounting threats to democratic freedoms Australians have for too long taken for granted. Yes, China is important to our economic prosperity; but, Hamilton asks, how much is our sovereignty as a nation worth? ‘Anyone keen to understand how China draws other countries into its sphere of influence should start with Silent Invasion. This is an important book for the future of Australia. But tug on the threads of China’s influence networks in Australia and its global network of influence operations starts to unravel.’ –Professor John Fitzgerald, author of Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐As a Taiwan citizen who spent a number of years in Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front tactics and activities were something I thought I was very familiar with, until I read this book. The breadth and depth of the CCP’s infiltration into mainstream Australian society and its success in manipulating public figures and people of influence, not the mention the speed with which this was achieved is truly staggering. By the time I got a few chapters into the book, I felt Australia had been caught napping, but by the time I was halfway through I felt Australia must have been caught almost comatose. Thank God it’s now woken up, just about, and this very book owes something to that. Thoroughly researched and referenced, Silent Invasion leaves the United Front Work Department with no room for ‘plausible deniability’, something it normally excels in. As the reach of the CCP’s intolerant propaganda machine is now global, this book should be compulsory reading for all diplomatic service personnel, of every country!

⭐Thank you sir for your scholarly analysis and academic courage.I did find the book a bit repetitive at times which made me think that it was written as a collection of articles over some time rather than as a standalone piece. But the facts stand to scrutiny, the referencing is impeccable and the interpretations pretty objective.However, I do not share though the Author’s anxieties regarding the imperialistic and belligerent attitudes of the modern China. The pre-requisite for a nation to become a world super-power, especially through ‘silent’ tactics is to be able to export its language and culture. Lately there have been some significant investments into the movie industry, media etc. by PCC affiliated companies but is that really going to make a great deal of a difference? The problem with these Chinese dreams of post-modern colonialism is that:- Globalization has made sure that even the most remote and vulnerable nations (see Africa) are in a much better position to resist passively to undue influences- China has NO FRIENDS. A handful of smarmy ex-politicians or nerdy academics don’t count. they’re employees or mercenaries. Simply there aren’t any nations/tribes that share deep historical tribal or cultural affiliations with China.- the technological advancements available to most nations allow for very some destructive asymmetrical warfare and making an open serious military conflict that is required for territorial invasion extremely risky- and most importantly, millennia of geographical and cultural isolation has produced a highly specialized, homogeneous culture which has such little appeal to the outside world. The otherwise great Chinese cultural exports of work ethics and resilience have little appeal to an increasingly hedonistic and entitled Westernized society. If anything the Chinese society is much more vulnerable to the Western influence.However, I can see how in a ‘Black Swan’ event of severe Global crisis (ie climate change, asteroid hit, pandemic) the Chinese may find themselves in an unique advantageous position to send significant humanitarian aid to beleaguered nations and easily establish a physical “friendly” military presence in countries otherwise out of reach.

⭐As the cliche goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you. This book does vitally important work in exposing the tradecraft used by the Chinese Communist Party in infiltrating Australia using every possible means.This book should be read by people all across the West, because the same methods are being used by Red China to infiltrate and subvert all of our societies. Though this book was written before the pandemic, so any of the following sound familiar to Canadian or American readers today:- Various grandees and business leaders who turn out to be in the pay of China?- Student leaders whose loyalty is to China and who viciously attack those who speak for freedom for Hong Kong or Tibet or against the Uighur genocide?- Prominent voices who seek to equate criticism of the CCP with racism?Read this book so you can understand what is going on behind the headlines.

⭐I knew what I was in for when I began reading “Silent Invasion,” but I was surprised nonetheless by the revelations brought up in this book. The depth and scale of the PRC’s actions in Australia are surprising to say the least.While I think there is always a danger that some people might misinterpret this book as another cry of “Yellow Peril,” I believe that cooler aheads will agree that the dangers this book points out are all too real. We must be vigilant in guarding democracy, lest it slip away from our grasp in the darkness of the night.

⭐Hard times for Australia, its major trading partner China its long time ally the USA. That should pose no problem in normal times but both of those components are themselves in a strained period of relationship. The USA having lost 5 million manufacturing jobs following the PRC entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 is now under President Trump seeking economic solutions to its troubled population’s insecurities and the Cold War mentality that faded following the fall of the USSR appears to be recovering well. Silent Invasion is Clive Hamilton’s effort to fit into that brawl and does it well by finding real or imagined threats from China’s actions. The work is ponderous but has points to make. “… the Cold War never ended in Asia.” Loc. 132Australia’s policy makers must find their own treatment of that difficult world and Hamilton is of little help. The country seems to have an independence that has serviced it well in recent years and that is likely to continue.An aside: Just finished reviewing a novel – No-No Boy – that is based on American interment of all west coast people of Japanese heritage in concentration camps (citizens or not) under military guard during WWII; Hamilton states that Australia has one million of Chinese descent and rates only 20% loyal to Australia as he defines it. Be careful how you run with concepts like ‘Cold War’ in judging the real world we live in.

⭐Silent Invasion describes China’s insidious and relentless infiltration of Australia’s politics, culture, real estate, agriculture, utilities, universities, unions and even schools. Anyone concerned about China’s growing influence, power and control in the West must read this book! What has, and still is, happening in Australia is already well established in the West – and we should take notice of this powerful and thoroughly researched book before it’s too late.Silent Invasion demonstrates how China deploys subtle means, often threatening, to undermine Australia’s political, academic and institutional independence and free-thinking. And Professor Hamilton cites numerous examples of bribery, naivety and self-interest throughout Australia’s political and academic elite unwittingly aiding the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy of extending Chinese culture and policies throughout the country.The underlying message of Silent Invasion is that the Chinese Communist Party is a Leninist party state, with an organised philosophy of propaganda to undermine anything opposed to it, both at home and abroad. It makes promises (and tells lies) that can be discarded when convenient, so anything it says can be taken at face value. And the CCP requires all Chinese living abroad to be PRC citizens first and foremost and so act as agents for the Chinese Communist Party.

⭐Silent Invasion

⭐Silent Invasion, by Professor Clive Hamilton, describes, at length and in detail and with scrupulous care, how the Chinese Communist Party is exerting ever-tightening control over Australian politics and public life, with the express aim of suppressing, not only criticism of China, but democracy, academic freedom, free inquiry, free speech and other traditions of Australian life which the CCP finds disagreeable and which it wants to see abolished, worldwide. It is strongly reminiscent of George Orwell’s essays about the craven support of many British politicians and the massed ranks of the intelligentsia for: first Hitler and then Stalin. The fact that whilst most of Orwell’s essays were five to twenty pages long, Professor Hamilton’s book is far weightier (376 pages and 7422 Kindle locations) is explained by the sheer breadth and depth and the CCP’s ambitions in Australia and the extent of the sellout which Australia’s politicians and intelligentsia have contrived -and the patient thoroughness with which Prof. Hamilton has investigated these matters.

⭐Bought this book as intrigued by the premise that China, rather than USA, was the greatest threat to Australia’s independence of thought and action. The book gives names of some of the key players and methods, especially in Universities and via ex-pat Chinese, of an insidious ‘influence’ by the Chinese Communist Party.However, whilst the author quickly acknowledges (but then casually dismisses) the USA influence he reveals his true feelings in several passages. For example, in the passage dealing with the potential annexation of Taiwan and/or Islands claimed by Japan in the South China Sea the author says ‘Australia would be under an obligation to back the United States’ – not back Taiwan, or Japan or even Australia’s values but ‘back the US’. One is left wondering whether the whole book is just counter-propaganda.It would not take a huge leap of imagination to substitute other nations as the recipients of China’s influence or, for that matter, as the instigators of the influence. On that front it’s a timely, worthy and informative read.

⭐Great book. Everyone in the West should read this.

⭐Printers ink defacing pages, uncut pages, printing on some pages misplaced.The point is I sent this book as a present to an elderly friend. It is impossible for her to pack the book up and return it. What can we do about it?

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