Silent Invasion: The PRC’s Interference Operations in Australia
Clive Hamilton’s controversial new book, Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, almost went unpublished after three publishers pulled out citing fears of reprisals from Beijing. His warning that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a systematic campaign to exert political influence in Australia seemed vindicated before the book appeared. Published in February, Silent Invasion quickly became a best-seller and is being read in countries around the world that face a similar threat from a rising China under an increasingly authoritarian state.
Clive will explain the CCP’s influence and interference operations in Australia, the structure of its overseas influence network, and the techniques it uses. Australia’s elites are the target of sophisticated influence operations, and parts of the large Chinese-Australian diaspora have been mobilised to buy access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, collect information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and protest in the streets against Australian government policy.
He will comment on how ill-prepared Western democracies are to face the new kind of power China represents and how Australia is beginning to push back through new laws and heightened awareness.
About Clive Hamilton
Clive Hamilton is an Australian public intellectual and author. He founded, and for 14 years directed, Australia’s leading progressive think tank, the Australia Institute. He has held visiting academic appointments at Yale University, the University of Oxford and Sciences Po in Paris. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Scientific American and Nature. He is professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra.