'Be Like Bamboo' to Stand Up to Communist China's Interference

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has exerted its influence around the globe through targeting individuals, and it takes great strength and courage to resist such influences, speakers said at a public panel discussion. Experts with knowledge on the CCP’s infiltration activities discussed on Dec. 10 how the CCP has been able to exert influence in Australian society and how Australians can resist such infiltration. The panel discussion, hosted by the Australian Values Alliance, attracted a full house at the City Tattersalls Club in downtown Sydney. Ethics professor Clive Hamilton, a public intellectual and author of Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, said the CCP targets individuals, not groups. In his book published in February, Hamilton identified several individuals in Australia who he alleges are subject to the CCP’s influence operations. “Influence operations do not happen through institutions, they happen through individuals,” Hamilton said on the panel. “It is individuals who are targeted by the CCP through their United Front activities and there are manuals, which cadres are taught from about how to gain the upper hand over an individual and make him or her your friend.”