Malcolm Turnbull declares he will 'stand up' for Australia in response to China's criticism
14 replies, posted
[quote=ABC News][b]Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has struck out at Beijing, speaking Mandarin to declare he will "stand up" for Australians with his tougher foreign interference laws.[/b]
The Prime Minister used unusually sharp language to reject China's complaint against him, after he raised concerns this week about Communist Party influence in domestic politics.
"Modern China was founded in 1949 with these words, The Chinese people have stood up'. It was an assertion of sovereignty, it was an assertion of pride," he said, switching between speaking Mandarin and English.
"And we stand up and so we say, the Australian people stand up.
"There has been foreign interference in Australian politics."
When announcing new espionage legislation on Tuesday, Mr Turnbull mentioned his concerns about Chinese influence in domestic politics, but insisted the laws were not focused on any one country alone.
Beijing took that personally and fired a diplomatic warning shot, warning the remarks had "poisoned" the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.
China's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was shocked Mr Turnbull cited media reports about Communist Party interference.
"We are astounded by the relevant remarks of the Australian leader. Such remarks simply cater to the irresponsible reports by some Australian media that are without principle and full of bias against China," Mr Geng said at a regularly scheduled briefing.
Mr Turnbull said he was right to be worried about the role foreigners play in domestic politics, especially after Labor senator Sam Dastyari let a Chinese donor pay a legal bill for him.[/quote]
[url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-09/malcolm-turnbull-says-he-will-stand-up-for-australia/9243274[/url] the source features a video of his comments
The PM's comments are in the context of Chinese nationals bribing Australian politicians, and alleged undermining of Australian academia by Chinese international students acting on behalf of the Communist Party of China.
I still see China as a far more intimidating threat than Russia, as they tend to be not as blatant with their tentacles. Essentially their foreign policy in Africa (who is the next theater for resource conflict) is Butter over Guns and nobody is paying the fuck attention.
I would not be surprised if they've tried to meddle in Australian and New Zealand politics as they are the only Anglo-European presence in that hemisphere.
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;52960747]I still see China as a far more intimidating threat than Russia, as they tend to be not as blatant with their tentacles. Essentially their foreign policy in Africa (who is the next theater for resource conflict) is Butter over Guns and nobody is paying the fuck attention.
I would not be surprised if they've tried to meddle in Australian and New Zealand politics as they are the only Anglo-European presence in that hemisphere.[/QUOTE]
China is a huge importer of goods and services from Australia; everything from metals, to dairy milk, to baby formula, to degrees. It's easy to see that China is trying to get the best deal possible, even if they have to be naughty about it.
finding it hard to believe a word out of this dickheads mouth
[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;52960747]I still see China as a far more intimidating threat than Russia[/QUOTE]
I agree. The Russian exchange students aren't talking on their phones loudly in the library while we're trying to study, they're also not sneezing and coughing out into the open in the middle of a lecture, they're also not standing like mindless drones in the hallways when a fire alarm goes off and we need to evacuate.
No shit Australian unis are covered with Chinese students everywhere
[QUOTE=Dr.C;52960852]I agree. The Russian exchange students aren't talking on their phones loudly in the library while we're trying to study, they're also not sneezing and coughing out into the open in the middle of a lecture, they're also not standing like mindless drones in the hallways when a fire alarm goes off and we need to evacuate.[/QUOTE]
It might be stereotyping, but every Chinese exchange student at my uni is a dickhead.
Whether it's driving like a maniac and ignoring student crossings or walking three abreast down a staircase and refusing to move out of the way, leading to people needing to grip the railings for dear life or get pushed down the staircase. They're have a complete disregard for common decency and politeness and had me wishing I was back home instead of the shithole that's Melbourne.
And then you see people from Indonesia, Thailand, India, etc, and they're all the most gracious and nice people you'll meet.
[QUOTE=kobalt;52960980]It might be stereotyping, but every Chinese exchange student at my uni is a dickhead.
Whether it's driving like a maniac and ignoring student crossings or walking three abreast down a staircase and refusing to move out of the way, leading to people needing to grip the railings for dear life or get pushed down the staircase. They're have a complete disregard for common decency and politeness and had me wishing I was back home instead of the shithole that's Melbourne.
And then you see people from Indonesia, Thailand, India, etc, and they're all the most gracious and nice people you'll meet.[/QUOTE]
Every person I've met from Australia, conversely, has been a dickhead, too.
[QUOTE=Chris Morris;52961315]Every person I've met from Australia, conversely, has been a dickhead, too.[/QUOTE]
I don't know where you live but I can assure you that our sample size of young chinese people is larger than your sample size of australians
At both of my universities, there is a ridiculous number of chinese students (50% in some of my classes) most of whom can barely read in-class tasks but miraculously manage to pull off assignments in native-tier english and get near perfect grades for them. But of course they won't be questioned about it because they form a huge chunk of the university profits.
[QUOTE=Chris Morris;52961315]Every person I've met from Australia, conversely, has been a dickhead, too.[/QUOTE]
There's a fairly reasonable explanation and plenty of examples to back up more than enough of his claim, even though describing every Chinese tourist or student as such is an overreach. Most of it stems from China's new middle class, bringing people who normally needed to be selfish into an environment with surplus, as well as their history from Mao through Deng resulting in a lack of cultural growth compared to the rest of the world.
Fairly ironic for a country that fanatically defends their cyber sovernty to deride another country for defending their cyber sovernty
As an Australian myself, one thing that grinds my gears about this country is the way we get so up-in-arms about foreign influence, and then at the same time our entire "culture" is basically just people following England and the U.S around like lost ducklings while simultaneously ass-blasting any native culture to bits at every opportunity.
I've been to a university here in WA, and yeah, there were a fair amount of Chinese students. And you know something? I much prefered their company over the Australian students. Perhaps I'm just biased, because I've had most of my life made painful by people who were about as "true blue aussie" as you could hope to find, but for a country that relies so much on outside exports, builds its cultural identity on other countries, and with a comparatively tiny population vs available space, the hostile, xenophobic attitude a lot of people take against anybody who isn't walking around in a singlet with a southern cross tattoo is frankly appalling.
Not to mention that criticizing Turnbull isn't exactly that difficult. He's trying to spread distaste for an entire country based on things that were levelled at [I]him.[/I] Trying to make his problems into everybody's problems. The Chinese probably had a bloody good reason to call him out for some of his B.S.
Ona it's not the Chinese students, just the Chinese government trying to control them while in Australia. It's no small secret that the CCP has the reigns of many Chinese student societies in Aus universities and uses them to intimidate or harass students into towing the party line. The students are fine, covertly controlling them isn't (especially if it results in attempts to undermine academic freedom)
[QUOTE=Ona;52961582]As an Australian myself, one thing that grinds my gears about this country is the way we get so up-in-arms about foreign influence, and then at the same time our entire "culture" is basically just people following England and the U.S around like lost ducklings while simultaneously ass-blasting any native culture to bits at every opportunity.
I've been to a university here in WA, and yeah, there were a fair amount of Chinese students. And you know something? I much prefered their company over the Australian students. Perhaps I'm just biased, because I've had most of my life made painful by people who were about as "true blue aussie" as you could hope to find, but for a country that relies so much on outside exports, builds its cultural identity on other countries, and with a comparatively tiny population vs available space, the hostile, xenophobic attitude a lot of people take against anybody who isn't walking around in a singlet with a southern cross tattoo is frankly appalling.
Not to mention that criticizing Turnbull isn't exactly that difficult. He's trying to spread distaste for an entire country based on things that were levelled at [I]him.[/I] Trying to make his problems into everybody's problems. The Chinese probably had a bloody good reason to call him out for some of his B.S.[/QUOTE]
The problem is shit like housing prices being driven up by rich foreign investors, in particular Chinese, who buy new houses (without needing a citizenship), leaving housing to become more and more expensive for average Australians, plus not to mention all the farmland being sold off to Chinese, PLUS natural resources are being sold off while electricity and gas prices are rising for Australians.
It's fucken dogshit
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