As I reported yesterday, it’s plain which Australian political party China wants in power. The Chinese Communist Party is doing everything in its power to buy the next election for Labor.
Whether its Labor powerbrokers lobbying for China and hobnobbing with accused Chinese spies, CCP-connected businessman handing over literal shopping bags full of cash at Labor functions, or alleged Chinese agents trying to bankroll Labor candidates for the next election, it’s plain that Beijing very, very badly wants a Labor government in Canberra.
Now it’s pitching all its propaganda guns into the fray.
The Chinese government’s propaganda mouthpiece, The Global Times, has published an article endorsing Labor leader Anthony Albanese as a better prime minister than Scott Morrison.
The government-owned media outlet, which espouses the views of the Chinese Communist Party, is promoting an article praising Mr Albanese as a “safe leader”, saying he “positively shines compared to Morrison”.
By contrast, Mr Morrison is described as a “clown” and is accused of leading a government that is “imploding through corruption, failure to manage Covid-19, and a range of other anti-social programs and prejudices”.
China’s anti-Morrison animus is not for nothing. In one of the few positives of an otherwise lamentable term in power, the Morrison government has called China to account for its role in unleashing the Wuhan pandemic on the world, and been instrumental in building up alliances to check China’s military build-up in the Indo-Pacific. This includes not just the official AUKUS pact, but the more informal but no less historic “Quad” group of Australia, the USA, Japan and India.
In return, China has tried to hold the government’s feet to the fire with relentless trade and diplomatic bullying. All have so far failed.
So, they’re trying a new propaganda tack and rolling out their pet Quislings.
The Global Times tweeted on Monday: “Albanese will not be a charismatic leader but he positively shines compared to Morrison. Such is the abysmal state of Oz politics. One would like to see a reset in ties with China, but Oz leadership is weak and US pressure is sustained.”
The author of the piece is Bruce Haigh, a former diplomat with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In his article, he writes that the “Murdoch-dominated media in Australia is anti-China, and many in the Australian population go along with this view”. He goes on to say that Mr Albanese is “being swept along by a fear of upsetting voters prior to the federal election due in weeks”.
Haigh is an unabashed China apologist. His website is an unending stream of attacks on Australia, America, anyone who opposes Chinese policy, with a special sauce of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Haigh also tries to deflect criticism of China’s genocide in Xinjiang by ludicrously comparing it to Australia’s border protection regime. He has also proclaimed a convicted people smuggler as “the Schindler of Asia”.
The chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, James Paterson, said The Global Times was a tool of propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party.
The Australian
When Defence Minister Peter Dutton said in parliament last week that China wanted an Albanese victory at the next election, Labor feigned outrage and claimed that “there was no evidence China’s preference was for Labor to win”.
We now know that that was a blatant lie.
The only thing Australians need to consider is: why is China so desperate to get Anthony Albanese into the Lodge?