| 送交者: chickenrun8[☆★★无眼狗圈疯话★★☆] 于 2020-08-08 1:58 已读 1328 次 | chickenrun8的个人频道 |
Propaganda Wars: US state department funds anti-China news outlet in Australia 6park.comby Marcus Reubenstein | Aug 4, 2020 | Business, Comment Analysis 6park.com
6park.comFalun Gong, Decode China 6park.comFalun Gong symbol. Image by Alex Anstey 6park.com
6park.comOffice bearers of US-backed Chinese language news service Decode China are linked with Falun Gong, the spiritual group that has spent millions backing Donald Trump through fake social media accounts. The same people are on the board of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, raising scepticism about its ability to repair fractured relationships. Marcus Reubenstein investigates US state funding of anti-China media in Australia and links to global arms dealers via ASPI. 6park.com
6park.comThe US State Department is quietly funding a Chinese-language news service in Australia, a move more typically associated with China’s state media propagandists. 6park.com
6park.comOne of the three office bearers of the news service, Decode China, is a member of a taxpayer-funded independent board advising the Australian government on engagement with China. 6park.com
6park.comCorporate records show Maree Ma became secretary of Decode China Pty Ltd just eight weeks before Foreign Minister Marise Payne appointed her to the board of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations. 6park.com
6park.comWai Ling Yeung, who was previously listed as a director of Decode China, was appointed to the NFACR Board at the same time as Ma. The Department of Foreign Affairs declined to respond to questions about other company directorships of any NFACR board members. 6park.com
6park.comThe NFACR replaced the Australia China Council (ACC), which was set up by the Fraser government in 1978 and later chaired by former prime minister Gough Whitlam. 6park.com
6park.comThe retired Curtin University academic Dr Yeung is a vocal critic of the Chinese government, while Ma is the general manager of the Falun Gong-aligned, largely anti-Chinese government Vision Times newspaper. According to journalist and former Australian Falun Gong practitioner Ben Hurley, Vision Times is part of the apparatus of Falun Gong media in Australia, led by The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television. 6park.com
6park.comThe spiritual group Falun Gong is banned in China and there is substantial evidence that its mainland Chinese followers are harshly persecuted by the Chinese government. 6park.com
6park.comHowever, former practitioners say it’s a dangerous cult, whose leaders claim to have the power of levitation and tell followers that aliens from other planets are responsible for interracial marriage and mixed-race children. 6park.com
6park.comFalun Gong-aligned media affiliates in the US have been accused of pouring millions of dollars into fake social media accounts and Facebook advertising, since banned, supporting Donald Trump. A recent investigation by the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent and Background Briefing programs revealed Falun Gong-affiliated media in the US have spent more than US$11.5 million in social media advertising to promote Trump. 6park.com
6park.comASPI lurking in the background 6park.com
6park.comThe US State Department funding of Decode China comes via a murky not-for-profit group the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), which was founded in the former Yugoslavia and is headquartered in London. 6park.com
6park.comIn 2018-19 the US State Department funnelled $88,964.37 into the coffers of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) through the IWPR, a payment that was never publicly declared. Though ASPI calls itself an independent think tank, its constant anti-China rhetoric has led one former cabinet minister to call it “the centre of Sinophobia” in Australia. 6park.com
6park.comAnother omission from ASPI’s public disclosures is a $203,000 payment this year from the US State Department, directed through the US Embassy in Canberra. 6park.com
6park.comIn July, a joint APAC News/Michael West Media investigation revealed that ASPI had received millions of dollars in undeclared Defence Department contracts. 6park.com
6park.com
6park.com
6park.comAmong some of the generous contracts, in October 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s department “sponsored” a free talk and light refreshments function for ASPI, which cost taxpayers almost $1000 per head. 6park.com
6park.comASPI’s cluster of cash 6park.com
6park.comIn 2018-19 ASPI picked up a $50,000 payment from Raytheon, which used to be one of the biggest manufacturers of cluster-bombs. Until 2016, the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s GPFG, blacklisted investment in Raytheon because of its involvement in cluster munitions. 6park.com
6park.comBefore becoming Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds worked as a project director at Raytheon. Her first speech in Australia after becoming minister was to an ASPI conference called “War in 2025.” A number of Defence Department personnel attended that conference for which they handed ASPI $30,723 of taxpayers’ money for the privilege of hearing their boss speak. 6park.com
6park.comLast financial year Reynolds’ department gifted ASPI $1.7 million in contracts, over and above an annual grant of $4 million. 6park.com
6park.comTrouble on the NFACR board 6park.com
6park.comIn March last year, when the Morrison government announced it would replace the Australia China Council with the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, it was to be chaired by incumbent ACC chairman Warwick Smith. A former Howard government minister, highly respected for his three decades of political and business experience with China, Smith was seen a sensible choice. 6park.com
6park.comForeign Minister Marise Payne announced the full membership of the board in February this year, and Smith quit NFACR a few weeks later. 6park.com
6park.comA board of China sceptics 6park.com
6park.comAlong with Maree Ma, three other NFACR board members are linked to ASPI. Journalist Stan Grant is a Senior Fellow at ASPI, academic John Fitzgerald is an Emeritus Professor at ASPI and Rory Medcalf is a contributor to ASPI magazine The Strategist. 6park.com
6park.comA number of NFACR board members have either been openly antagonistic towards the Chinese government or have little or no experience in northern China, from where the majority of Chinese-Australians trace their ancestry. 6park.com
6park.comLong-time China observer and former Sydney Morning Herald foreign editor Hamish McDonald recently described the board as “Overall, a China-sceptical line-up”. Meanwhile, academic and former executive director of the Australia China Council, Jocelyn Chey, has criticised the NFACR as being unrepresentative, saying she has “no confidence” it can repair China-Australia relations. 6park.com
6park.comEditor’s Note: 6park.com
6park.comAn earlier report in the South China Morning Post, which stated that Wai Ling Yeung, Director of Decode China Pty. Ltd is the same Wai Ling Yeung who is a member of the NFACR advisory board, was relied upon in writing this article. Efforts are currently being made to determine the accuracy of this assertion. 6park.com
6park.comNote: While articles by Marcus Reubenstein have been republished by some Chinese media outlets, he has no editorial or commercial arrangements with such media. 6park.comhttps://www.michaelwest.com.au/propaganda-wars-us-state-department-funds-anti-china-news-outlet-in-australia/#disqus_thread
请点这里投票，“赞”助支持！