National
China’s spin offensive
ALAN KOHLER, Business Spectator
China’s demented behaviour over Stern Hu and Rebiya Kadeer is starting to become quite disturbing. You wonder, in fact, whether China’s communist system involves any central planning at all. Certainly Kevin Rudd seems to have more control over what’s going on within his government than Hu Jintao has over the sprawling, sycophantic bureaucracies that infest China.
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And then yesterday we have a “political counsellor” from the Chinese embassy in Canberra turning up at the National Press Club trying to bully them into pulling today’s planned address by Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
“You must withdraw the invitation to Ms Kadeer,” The Australian reports the embassy official as firmly telling the NPC directors.
This comes after hysterical protests – both official and unofficial – about the showing of a film about Kadeer at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and the festival’s website being hacked and deliberately brought down. Before that the Chinese government had previously tried to stop her getting an Australian visa.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is trying to appear calm in the face of all this demented bullying by our most important trading partner, saying it won’t affect relations between the two countries. But it must.
How can Rio Tinto’s sales effort in China be unaffected? Can BHP Billiton really just keep its head down and hope it all blows over? The storm is escalating, not blowing over.
Indeed, how can anyone confidently do business in China with the threat hanging over them of summary imprisonment for breaching vague and capricious laws governing state secrets?