campusreview.com.au
Code red
Education minister says Australian universities are at
the heart of ‘unprecedented’ foreign interference.
By Wade Zaglas
L
ucrative research partnerships between Australian
universities and China are not only endangering academic
autonomy but also presenting a threat to our national
security, according to a policy analyst interviewed on ABC TV’s
Four Corners program.
“It’s clearly not in Australia’s interest to be recklessly training
scientists who will go on to develop technologies that could be
used against our military and against our county,” said Alex Joske,
an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Concerns over university infiltration reached a fever pitch
early this year when an ANU staff member opened an email and
triggered a sophisticated phishing attack that accessed thousands
of former students’ information.
The program mentioned that “behind closed doors” intelligence
officers believed the culprit to be China, although the former head
of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Alastair MacGibbon, said
such allegations are yet to be proven.
But senior Australian security officials allegedly told Four Corners
“they believe the Chinese government was carrying out a
high‑tech espionage operation to collect information to comprise
and blackmail the victims of the data breach”.
Joske believes ANU was targeted because it trains thousands
of individuals who will eventually work in the national security
community. If ANU holds information that compromises these
people, “then this is incredibly concerning and could undermine
our national security”, he said.
The program highlighted that there have been 30 collaborations
between ANU and Chinese defence universities, including research
projects to produce aerial robots, drones and technology to
“help stealth fighters hide themselves while communicating with
military bases”.
However, ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt argued that
all of the research projects were in the “public domain” and
consideration was always given to the potential harm of the
project, and that some were for “dual purpose”.
“Foreign interference is now at unprecedented levels in this
country,” Education Minister Dan Tehan told the program.
international education
“There have been cyber intrusions which have occurred in the
last 3–4 years which should be a wake-up call to Australia, a wake-
up call to our university sector, a wake-up call to our business
sector, a wake‑up call to our government.”
Due to the wealth of information universities hold, Tehan warned
the institutions that they must be particularly diligent in dealing
with the threat of foreign interference and insisted that “they
understand the level of the threat and what needs to done”.
However, the Chinese government and its supporters deny
that a threat to national security exists or that foreign interference
is occurring.
“We’ve noticed ASIO and other intelligence agencies in Australia
making allegations either direct or indirect against China. We
think these allegations are unfounded and without substantial
evidence,” said Professor Chen Hong, director of Australian studies
at East China Normal University. Later he told a delegation that
“in Australia there are some anti-China forces at play”.
In addition to allegations of foreign interference at Australian
universities, Four Corners also highlighted how Chinese students are
being “caught in the middle” of China’s expansionist and nationalistic
policies. In August, pro-Beijing supporters clashed violently with pro-
democracy protesters. On the same weekend, a pro-China rally was
held, with protestors yelling: “If you don’t love China, you are the
enemy,” and “If you don’t like Hong Kong, get the hell out of there.”
An ugly brawl at the University of Queensland in July occurred
during a protest aimed at China’s alleged human rights abuses,
and the university’s chancellor Professor Peter Høj’s alleged
connections with China and the Chinese Communist party.
The Four Corners program also questioned the raison d’être of
the 13 Confucius Institutes in Australia. According to Ross Babbage,
the senior security adviser for the Australian government, the
Anything related to China has been labelled
a threat. It’s no longer yellow peril – it’s red peril.
institutes are little more than “a mechanism for Communist party
apparatchiks … to get into foreign countries”.
Babbage also says they are used to “propagate messages from
Beijing – propaganda if you like”. Thirdly, they are also used to
“keep an eye on ethnic Chinese”.
The NSW Department of Education recently announced
it would close its Confucius Institutes, citing a “perception of
influence from Beijing”.
“I deplore very much the decision made by the NSW government
[regarding the Confucius Institute closures],” Hong said. “I think it
is very much like a witch hunt. Anything related to China has been
labelled a threat. it’s no longer yellow peril – it’s red peril.”
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is deeply
concerned by the allegations made in the program and has called
on all universities to review the conditions underlining partnerships
with research sponsors and external partners.
One of the key concerns expressed by the NTEU was the
potential for Australian universities to be contributing to research
that is ultimately being used to abuse human rights, the kind that is
allegedly happening to the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province
through “tech-enhanced surveillance” developed through a
research partnership between Australia and China. ■
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