Why We Seek To Deny Discourse Power To Ambassador Xiao Qian
notes on the 24 June ACRI / Xiao Qian protest
On the 24th of June allied organisations supporting freedom sent representatives to coordinate a sequence of interruptions at the “address” given by Xiao Qian, the Ambassador of China at the UTS Sydney. For many of the 10 participants involved, speaking out was a terrifying experience, since many have suffered directly or have relatives who have been persecuted by the organisation that Xiao represents, the Chinese Communist Party. There is no business model for resisting tyranny and there is no personal advantage in taking time out of work to speak truth to power.
In a free society, so-called cancel culture and deplatforming should be opposed. Stopping dialogue is localised censorship, and if you don’t have freedom of speech, you don’t have freedom to think. This event was not an attempt at dialogue, this was always intended to be a misleading monologue aimed at conditioning Australians to think and hold opinions that suit China’s interests. The ACRI should be dismantled, a speech such as this should not be permitted unless and until “concrete actions” have been taken by China, and the format and manner of Zhao Li Jian “routine journalist briefings” (例行记者会 / lixing jizhe hui) should not be normalised in an Australian setting.
All Australians should be outraged that the Ambassador was speaking from a platform he effectively owns, which was set up for the purpose of deploying China’s so called “discourse power” (话语权 / hua yu quan). ACRI should never have been allowed to exist. From the outset it was always clear it was intended to be a propaganda arm created by the helpfully comic United Front figure 黄向墨 / Huang Xiang Mo. It is maintained by donations primarily from Chinese state enterprises operating in Australia who answer to the party dictatorship through party officials within those corporations who manage CCP political affairs in Australia. Australian companies seeking a “closer relationship" with the CCP also donate.
ACRI creates reports aiming to shape the way Australians perceive China, in ways that favour China’s interests at the expense of the truth, and our sovereignty. The first ACRI report I ever read was Sun Wan Ning’s Chinese Language Media in Australia (April 2016) that does not mention the link between NanHai Media then owned by Huang Xiang Mo, self appointed “outstanding leader of the Chinese / Governor General of the Chinese” in Australia and initiator of the ACRI. It deleted the very existence of the Fa Lun Gong media groups, and of course, gave no discussion to the fact that Chinese media are tools of the CCP public opinion management (新闻舆论管理 / xinwen yulun guanli) through censorship of Australian sourced articles and recycling articles from the Peoples Daily and other CCP mouthpieces.
My favourite report would be James Laurenson and Michael Zhou’s COVID-19 and the Australia-China Relationship’s Zombie Economic Idea,¨ (May 2020). This report was designed to frame Australian thinking that we were strategically screwed and dependent on China and that resistance was futile. The egg on Laurenson’s face was barely dry by the time we had sanctions placed on us, but the last laugh was on China when the lights went out because they did not have enough coal to keep the electricity flowing. China’s strategy of stopping us from adding value to our raw materials exports meant that in the main, we were exporting mostly unprocessed raw materials, which are globally traded, and were thus diverted elsewhere. The question is, was Laurenson preparing the ground in coordination with the Chinese plan for a trade attack, a kind of public opinion psy-ops ?, or did he fall asleep during Economics 101 and not understand the basic principles of global commodity trade ?
ACRI hosts events that support CCP discourse power. This is it’s purpose. It is a weapon of information warfare against Australia. This event was an excellent example of this.
The speech was condescending and an insult to all Australians, the questions process reminiscent of a Zhao Li Jian “routine journalist briefing” with only prepared and selected questions that Xiao Qian was aware of and knew he needed to deal with. James Laurenson clearly wanted to be a co-star, and gave long winded questions that included a lot of opinions trying to create the appearance of putting forward Australian concerns but with embedded concessions such as perpetuating the trope that past Australian manner of communications was unjustified. The stage managing of this process demonstrates contempt for Australian freedom of speech and an attempt to import the practices of a dictatorship in our country and normalise the role and behaviour of a party dictatorship on an Australian University campus. Australians should be outraged. We must never allow ourselves to be conditioned to accept this. It is not normal, it is not ok. Sophie McNeil at Human Rights Watch has done an excellent job of explaining How Australians Can Avoid Aiding China’s Propaganda Machine, it should be considered by anyone who needs to interact with CCP connected organisations or representatives of the Chinese state.
As for Xiao Qian’s speech content, there was nothing in it that is not in the People’s Daily, reiterated daily.
Those who cancel and deplatform, using bullets, jails, electronic censorship and financial penalties should themselves not be permitted discourse power. Discourse rights must be earned and deserved. China must take concrete actions to earn the right to discourse power. They have a long way to go. Those who argue China has a “right” to discourse power are implying that because they have weapons and money, and bellicose manner, therefore we should listen to them, out of fear and intimidation. We cannot respect such a nation and given that they call us “dogs”, “rabid kangaroos” and so on, it is a joke to talk about “mutual" respect.
We should study China, watch what they do, and judge them by their actions. We must actively fight to counter and frustrate their discourse power. This requires a whole of society effort, led at least in part, and not undermined, by the university system. We do not request counter propaganda. The truth will be our magic weapon 杀手锏 / 法宝 - (take your pick), the communist vampire fears the light of truth, which is why they repeatedly rewrite history and twist the narrative of current events.
In 2017 Malcom Turnbull announced that Australia had “stood up”. I do not agree. Australia had merely woken up, now is the time to properly stand up, and to do so, we need to be united. We cannot allow CCP controlled organisations to undercut our stand against the voice and actions of tyranny extending to this country. Our role in defending freedom globally is to act locally. Let’s start by fighting the 话语权 hua yu quan of an extremist organisation, the CCP, in this country.
Shut down the ACRI and replace it with a China studies centre free of CCP control and it’s lackeys working on it’s behalf. But it’s only the start.
Simon Jiandan (Simple Simon) is a pseudonym. The writer is a businessman with experience studying mandarin, travelling, working and doing business in or with China. The use of the pseudonym is to protect relatives, friends and business partners past and present.