I’ve served in the Australian embassy in Baijimg and our consulates in Shanghai and Hong Kong. One of the tasks we have, as diplomats, is to keep in touch with local Australians. We’d be part of the local business bodies, like the Australian-China Chamber of Commerce. We’d celebrate Australia Day and other Aussie holidays, inviting all the local Australians we knew of. Part of the job.
So, in one sense, what China does overseas is just doing that normal diplomatic work.
The differences are what worries places like Singapore. One is that it’s the Communist Party of China. Not just the Chinese state. In the Australian embassy and consulates we were representing the state of Australia not a political party. Let alone a communist party, with their histories of overt and covert expansionism and influence peddling.
Another difference is that Xi Jinping, calling for more such influence peddling, makes it on the basis of blood ties, not nationality. It’s as if our Australian embassies were calling on loyalty from Anglos around the world, not just Australian citizens.
That’s why Singapore, the “Lion City”, is wary of Chinese communist party interference. It’s why it recently invoked FICA, its Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.
From The Economist “Singapore cracks down on Chinese influence”, of 8 February 2024:
“F
estive fever” is how the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre describes the national mood in the run-up to Chinese New Year on February 10th. A different fever troubles the government of Singapore: how to deal with China’s allegedly extensive influence operations in the city-state. This month7a sweeping new law against foreign interference was invoked for the first time, against a Hong Kong-born Singaporean, Philip Chan.
Shadowy Chinese operations are not a new development. In 2018 Huang Jing, an academic at the Lee Kuan Yew school at the National University of Singapore, was expelled from the country for his ties to China’s security ministry. And misinformation and propaganda has long coursed through Singaporean social media. There are laws in place to regulate that. But the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, passed in 2021 and known as fica, grants the home minister, K. Shanmugam, new powers to investigate individuals suspected of engaging in information campaigns by a hostile state. Mr Chan, the government declared, “has shown susceptibility to be influenced by foreign actors and willingness to advance their interests.”
I mention this because Alex Lo, in his piece this morning says: [U.S. Senator] “Tom Cotton inexplicably claimed that the Lion City was infiltrated by the Chinese Communist party”. Nothing inexplicable about it. Just that Senator Cotton is clearly more up to date with the news than Lo.
ADDED: The Economist article has a nice ending. Talking of Philip Chan, the Chinese businessman charged under the FICA act, The Economist wonders if it’s a case, as the Chinese say, of “killing the chicken to frighten the monkey”. That Chan is charged in order to scare more senior people. Final para:
“Come to that, Singapore has not named China as the offending country in Mr Chan’s case. China has a way of making everyone chicken.”
Hah!
