The Chinese Communist Party has influenced the media ecology itself, creating a distorted playing field in its favor,” said Alex Joske, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
According to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), at least four Chinese-language media companies in Australia receive financial support from the Chinese Communist Party, and at least 17 others have close ties to Beijing’s ‘overseas influence arm’, even the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Australian National Television (ANT). Even representatives of the Chinese media departments of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Australian National Television (SBS) have participated in forums organized by the CCP’s overseas propaganda department, while WeChat has encouraged these media outlets to register for WeChat’s public website, disguised as an extension of the CCP’s degree of control.
The ASPI report notes that the CCP authorities are “infringing” on the journalistic autonomy of Australia’s Chinese language media, with implications far beyond those of the Australian government, particularly as these Chinese language media translate articles from the English language media and negative content about the CCP is censored or removed.
In addition, WeChat would encourage these media to register public numbers, disguised as reinforcing the CCP’s control over them across the ocean, as content sent from WeChat would be censored. The report notes that WeChat is also a popular messaging App for Australians, and that the tight restrictions on messaging on WeChat facilitate the dissemination of news content targeting Australian users, and that the opaque sharing of online messages within the app continues to allow the dissemination of fake news.
The CCP has influenced the media ecosystem itself, creating a distorted playing field in its favor,” said Alex Joske, an analyst for the report. In addition, the creation of Chinese social media applications may be driving some of the most significant and damaging changes to the Chinese language media industry in Australia ever.
The report noted that Australian Chinese-language media, Sydney Today, had translated a report by The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Broadcasting Corporation about the raid on NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane’s apartment and office by federal police, but the translation removed references to the reasons for Australia’s Anti-Foreign Intervention Act and to Moselmane’s Chinese advisor John Zhang’s contacts with the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.
The survey also noted that four of the 24 Australian Chinese media outlets it investigated were owned or financially supported by the CCP, and at least half were or are members of groups associated with the CCP’s United Front Department, with the Australian Pacific Media Group and the Australian Nanhai Culture and Media Group also named as receiving support from the “China News Service” and the CCP’s United Front Department.
Every two years, CNA invites hundreds of overseas Chinese media representatives to its Global Chinese Media Forum, where participants receive speeches promoting CCP policies and how to strengthen cooperation with CNA.
In 2013, the forum was attended by the head of the Chinese language division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and an interim producer from the Chinese language division of Australian Nation Television (SBS).
The report called on the Australian government to encourage the establishment and development of independent media and to ensure the same standards are applied to WeChat and to U.S. social media enterprises, to amend legislation to improve the transparency of foreign ownership of media, and to review conflicts of interest and the risk of foreign interference in Australian media.
In September, Bloomberg reported that Beijing was using WeChat (microblogging) to remotely control Chinese students, citing senior U.S. Justice Department officials.
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