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 department. “Even representatives of the Chinese media departments of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Australian National Television (SBS) have participated in forums organized by China’s overseas propaganda department, and WeChat has encouraged these media to sign up for WeChat’s public website, disguising the extent of the CCP’s control.
The ASPI report notes that the CCP authorities are “infringing” on the journalistic autonomy of Australia’s Chinese language media, even more so than the Australian government, especially when 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 favour,” said Alex Joske, an analyst for the report. In addition, the creation of a Chinese social media application system may be driving the most significant and harmful changes ever seen in the Australian Chinese media industry.”
The report noted that Australian Chinese-language media, Sydney Today News, had translated reports from The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Broadcasting Enterprises about the raid on NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane’s apartment and office by federal police, but the translated stories removed references to the reasons for Australia’s Anti-Foreign Intervention Act and to Moselmane’s Chinese adviser John Zhang’s contacts with the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.
The report also noted that four of the 24 Australian Chinese media outlets surveyed were owned or financially supported by the Chinese Communist Party, and that at least half of them were or are members of groups associated with the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, including the Australian Pacific Media Group and the Australian Nanhai Cultural Media Group, which were also named as receiving support from the China News Service and the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.
Every two years, CNA invites hundreds of overseas Chinese media representatives to its Global Chinese Media Forum, where participants hear speeches on 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 SBS, the Australian national television station.
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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