On this episode of China Uncensored,
what do China’s military and Australian universities
have in common?
They were both started by criminals!
Probably.
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
The Chinese Communist Party
wants to dominate the world.
In fact,
for a regime that’s secretive about everything—
from pollution levels,
to state executions,
to even basic economic numbers—
they’ve been surprisingly transparent about this:
Their plan to turn the Communist Party
into the dominant global power.
So you’d think the rest of the world
would perhaps have heard about this.
Take Australia for example.
A few months ago,
an investigation showed that the CCP
was buying political influence in Australia.
“The Chinese Communist Party is waging
a covert campaign of influence in Australia—
an aggressive form of ‘soft power’—
and while loyalists are rewarded,
dissidents live in fear.”
That sounds pretty serious.
It even gained the attention
of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation,
or ASIO —
Australia’s equivalent of the Department of Homeland Security.
It warned, “that espionage
and foreign interference in Australia
were occurring on ‘an unprecedented scale.’”
And ASIO told Australia’s political parties that,
you know,
taking money from Chinese billionaires
with dubious ties to the Communist Party,
might not be the wisest idea.
So to sum up:
The Chinese Communist Party
wants to dominate the world.
To achieve that goal,
they buy political influence in foreign countries,
like Australia.
Australia’s top security agency is like:
“The Communist Party is trying to infiltrate our country.
Don’t take their money!
Crikey, mate!”
So how did Australia’s political parties respond?
They put country before politics
and returned all the Chinese money,
vowing that it would never happen again.
Just kidding.
They kept on taking Chinese money.
More than a million dollars worth.
Because this is the darkest timeline.
Hmm...okay
I can see how that might look bad.
But wait!
As this editorial in the Australian says,
Australia should not isolate itself
from the benefits of China.
The author is Laurie Pearcey,
former CEO of the Australia China Business Council
and now pro-vice-chancellor international
at the University of New South Wales.
And we should all listen to him because
he’s a pro vice-chancellor,
not like those amateur vice-chancellors.
Anyway, Pearcey complains that the “media”
is out to portray that,
“Beijing is on a mission
to undermine our democratic institutions
by buying off politicians,
stealing the crown jewels
of Australia’s research discoveries,
and invading our university campuses
with Chinese Communist Party intelligence operatives.”
And that’s ridiculous.
I mean, he should know,
as a pro-vice-chancellor...person
at one of Australia’s top universities.
Like, take this recent article
by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Australian universities helping the Chinese military?
That sounds ridiculous!
Except…that’s exactly what’s happening.
Australian universities are helping China
develop military technology.
And even better,
some of it’s being funded by Australian taxpayers.
But I guess—
if Australian political parties
are happy to ignore warnings
from the Australian intelligence agency—
why would universities worry about
working with the Chinese military
on technology with military applications?
Here’s an example.
Let’s look at Mr. Pro-Vice-Chancellor’s
very own University of New South Wales.
In particular, at Xue Jingling,
a Professor of Computing Science and Engineering there.
Back in 2009,
Xue was a professor at China’s
People’s Liberation Army National University of Defense Technology.
Or as it’s called for short,
NUDT.
Think of it like the MIT of the People’s Liberation Army.
Professor Xue was doing joint research
that created one of the world’s
most powerful supercomputers.
And he worked closely with the president of NUDT,
Lieutenant-General Yang Xuejun.
Yang Xuejun, incidentally,
just got promoted to the Central Committee
of the Chinese Communist Party—
which makes him one of the 205 most powerful people
in the entire Communist Party.
Here he is standing next to Xi Jinping
in a CCTV documentary.
He’s the military guy holding the flag.
So Professor Xue
worked with a Chinese lieutenant-general
to develop a supercomputer.
One that can help with new aircraft designs
and advanced combat simulations.
Plus, “NUDT supercomputers
are also used in the simulation and testing
of tactical nuclear weapons.”
And to top it all off,
“Some of Xue's research with NUDT
has been funded by grants from the Australian Research Council
worth over $2.3 million.”
The Australian Research Council
is a government agency,
so it’s funded by taxpayers.
So Professor Xue Jingling
at the University of New South Wales
used Australian taxpayer money
to research supercomputers
that had applications for
Chinese military combat and nuclear weapons.
And he did it under the guidance
of one of China’s top politicians-slash-generals.
And that’s just one example.
Now might be a good time to remind everyone
that China’s military technically belongs
to the Chinese Communist Party,
and not the Chinese government.
Scientists at other Australian universities
have also been collaborating with China’s NUDT,
which again,
is a military academy—
not just some regular Chinese university.
And they’ve been working together
to develop technology that directly helps
the Chinese military become more advanced.
The Sydney Morning Herald found
“NUDT has collaborated with Australian researchers
on hundreds of papers in high-tech fields
like materials science,
artificial intelligence
and computer science.”
Here’s another example:
Professor Tao Dacheng at the University of Sydney.
Tao’s specialty is artificial intelligence.
He’s written over a dozen papers
with NUDT researchers.
And as with Professor Xue,
Tao’s research was partially sponsored by
the taxpayer-funded Australian Research Council.
“His ARC funding totals $3.2 million
and in 2017 he was awarded
an ARC Laureate Fellowship.”
Lieutenant-General Yang has spent years
developing a network of connections
with high level researchers in Australia—
people like Professor Xue and Professor Tao—
and having them oversee Chinese students.
In just 5 years,
NUDT sent more than 700 Chinese scientists
and students to study abroad,
many in Australia.
And when the Sydney Morning Herald
asked the universities and the Australian Research Council,
“What’s up with all of this taxpayer-funded research
that benefits the PLA?
Ya bunch of bloomin’ buffoons!”
They were like,
“No wukkas!
We’ve got safeguards in place.
We do lots of due diligence.
It’s heaps good.”
Well, if they’re doing due diligence,
then I feel much better about
what’s happening in Australian universities.
But apparently ASIO still does not.
Which is why it has once again
tried to issue a warning
about China’s clandestine influence.
Let’s see if Australia’s universities
are more receptive than Australian politicians.
What do you think?
Leave your comments below.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored,
once again I’m your host Chris Chappell,
see you next time.
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