The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is funded by the Defence sector including US arms manufacturers. They call the tune in their anti-China campaign. Yet ASPI pretends it is ‘independent’. The ABC and others fall for the anti -China paranoia.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
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2 responses to “The underfunded ABC is at the mercy of well-funded, anti-China organisations”
I only recently became aware of the malign influence of ASPI when I read a piece in Der Spiegel criticising Volkswagen for using ‘persecuted’ Uighurs in car parts manufacture in China, and which referenced an ASPI report to back up its claims. When I read the ASPI piece, it was full of innuendo, and phrases like ‘could be’ and ‘highly likely’ were liberally scattered through the writing.
ASPI is in part funded by the Australian and US governments, yet ASPI promotes itself as an ‘independent’ agency. This claim to ‘independence’ may convince a local audience and media outlets such as the ABC, of its bona fides. But from the perspective of those in Beijing, all that is apparent is that the US and Australian governments are engaged in a bi-partisan effort to create and distribute anti-Chinese propaganda.
Against the background of the present stand-off between Canberra and Beijing, this may seem like a minor detail, but a salient one nonetheless.
One needs to be very alert to spot the ASPI credits on ABC TV and SBS – but they are there; maybe I’m naive for there are anti-China segments which may have ASPI origins but no credits!