- Decode China had been envisaged as an outlet to ‘expose and counter propaganda and disinformation’ with funding from Washington
- Observers said it could have acted as a balancing force to Chinese state media, which has made significant inroads in Australia in recent years [Link]
The article has an embedded video interview with Gareth Evans, ex-Foreign Minister of Australia. I knew Gareth back in the day, when I was a senior member of the Foreign Service and he was minister. He was always smart and straight forward and I respected him. Still do, including in the interview, which struck me as clear eyed about China and our, Australia’s, relations with China, which he describes as the “worst I’ve known them”. Agree. He contemplates some ways our relationship with China may be improved, including working together on “problems without borders”. And both sides stepping back from the bellicose rhetoric. With which, good luck…(as I’m sure Gareth would know).
Also mentioned in the article is Jocelyn Chey, founder of the Australia China Council. I worked alongside Jocelyn when she was Australia’s Consul-General to Hong Kong, back in the nineties.
I’ve never forgotten a little book she wrote -- “China’s New Society” -- still on my bookshelf, which was published in 1975 just before I arrived in China at the fag end of the cultural revolution in 1976, where she was Cultural Counsellor. It praised all the Maoist stuff that was going on, and was just about to be overturned with the arrest of the Gang of Four. I’ll bet she wishes it’d be forgotten. But… quoted in the article linked above she dumps on Aussie critics of the Communist Party. So apparently she’s still in that camp.
Another connection with Jocelyn. In 1990 I took over her apartment in Harbour City Kowloon. She’d just finished a stint as head of the International Wool Secretariat in Asia, based in Hong Kong. The IWS had decided to shift out of HK. I got the apartment with all the furnishings, Persian rugs, cutlery, crockery, the whole lot, for a snap. I was taking up a newly-created position of Executive General Manager of Austrade for East Asia, Hong Kong based, and needed a digs.
What a digs! 2,800 sq. ft. Views from two enormous balconies right across to Central, downstairs to Canton Road and bustling Tsim Sha Tsai. Three huge bedrooms, each with en-suite, massive kitchen and lounge. Outside a fabulous pool and the free membership to the Pacific Club with its three-Michelin-star restaurant, indoor pool, jacuzzi, spa, air-conditioned tennis courts. What a place! For a single guy, in a new fancy job, with a salary at the top end of Australia’s civil service and right smack bang in the middle of rhe beating heart of Hong Kong.
Oh boy. I’ve just remembered all of that. What a time! For fun, and play. And a bit of work…
