Held on the 2nd Oct 2018
at 6pm to
7pm
, Southern Tasmania
Stanley Burbury Lecture Theatre, Sandy Bay campus
Summary:A free public event with public ethics expert Clive Hamilton, Vice Chancellor's Chair at Charles Sturt University
Presenter(s):
- Clive Hamilton
Clive Hamilton’s controversial new book, Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, almost went unpublished after three publishers pulled out, citing fears of reprisals from Beijing. Since arriving in bookshops in February, the book has been subject to both criticism and acclaim.
In this lecture, Clive will explain the Chinese Communist Party’s influence and interference operations in Australia, the structure of its overseas influence network, and the techniques it uses. He will also draw on his recent study of China's influence in Tasmania.
About Silent Invasion
As Professor Rory Medcalf, the head of the Australian National University's National Security College writes in a review for the Lowy Institute, the book’s forthrightness is resounding internationally.
Silent Invasion will be essential reading for those in many countries concerned for their national security and the integrity of their institutions. Worth attention is the way the book illuminates the motives and secretive methods of the United Front Work Department. This organ of the Chinese Communist Party is now a familiar name in Australian public debate.
There is plenty to debate about the fairness and balance of Hamilton’s unsettling assessments on issues such as politics, espionage, Chinese community dynamics, and academic links. Much exceptional research and detail sits alongside sometimes hasty conclusions. On politics, despite efforts at influence, parliamentary democracy is demonstrating resistance to Chinese expectations; for example, the surprise rejection of the extradition treaty.
About the speaker
Clive Hamilton is an Australian public intellectual and author. He founded, and for 14 years directed, Australia’s leading progressive think tank, the Australia Institute. He has held visiting academic appointments at Yale University, the University of Oxford, the University of Heidelberg and Sciences Po in Paris. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, the Guardian, Scientific American and Nature. For the last ten years he has been Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra.
This free event is presented by the Institute for Social Change and Asia Institute Tasmania.
