FORMER Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called for national restraint as ASIO commenced raids last Friday on the offices of a Labor MP and his political staffer.
With the ALP suspending NSW MP Shaoquett Moselmane over “dreadfully concerning” allegations of Chinese Communist Party links, Mr Abbott has called for caution.
“There is little point giving gratuitous offence to China. But,” he said “there can be no compromise on our core national interests.
MILITARY
“That means ensuring that there would be consequences for any Chinese crackdown in Hong Kong, and a military option against any forcible incorporation of Taiwan.”
Mr Abbott said Australia should keep exporting as much as possible to China, but imports that China can turn off like a tap are a different matter.
“These include medical supplies, technology, intermediate supply chain goods and universities that are so financially dependent on Chinese students that they welcome government-controlled Confucius institutes while rejecting centres for Western Civilisation.
RAIDED
“As far as possible, we need to deal with China on a clear and consistent manner.”
In the meantime, the home and parliamentary office of Mr Moselmane were raided last Friday by Australian Federal Police and ASIO officers as part of an investigation into Chinese political interference.
The home and business address of his part-time staffer John Zhang were also searched.
ASIO is gathering evidence whether agents directed by the Chinese government had attempted to influence Mr Moselmane or others in his office – or whether the Labor MP is himself complicit.
Mr Moselmane, who has visited China nine times in the past decade, has a history of pro-China, anti-Australia rhetoric.
“The obsolete scum of white Australia is once again flooding, and the theory of yellow fever has once again surfaced,” he wrote in a China-based newspaper in February – as early reports of the Wuhan virus began to surface.
ANTI-WHITE
As well as being anti-white, Mr Moselmane also appears dangerously anti-West calling for the forced overthrow of Western Civilisation.
“The only way for China to reach its potential is for China to force a change to the rules and create a new world order,” he wrote.
“China cannot continue to rise the way that it has within a West-designed world order, in a Western-designed global financial system and in a West-controlled international legal trade structure dominated and controlled by Western powers.”
As the raids proceeded NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay declared Mr Moselmane would be stripped of his ALP membership and forced onto the parliamentary cross-bench, describing the matter as “dreadfully concerning”.
Mr Abbott’s comments were made during a recent online address to The Centre for Policy Studies in London.PC
There cannot be another war as it would escalate out of control.
Plain but polite talking goes a long way to smoothing any problematic relations, but I don’t mean between Diplomats. I mean right at the pointy end – between Xi and Morrison!