You will not find headlines like [2] about any other full fee paying demographic. As much as I hate to say it, Australia more or less belongs to China [3]
[1] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/university-...
[2] https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/05/29/u-s-schools-e...
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/d4slfj/australia...
Your first paragraph was fine. This is over the line. Bullshit like this is why people of opposing viewpoints can't discuss things - because assholes label them like this. "Oh, but i didn't call them racist!" Stop playing games. We aren't idiots.
If you can't keep discourse harming comments like this to yourself, you shouldn't bother at all, because you make it impossible for actually reasonable people to discuss different viewpoints.
Or you can just continue then wonder why politics are "so bad". Look in the mirror.
Being critical of the influence of fee-paying students in University can quickly become hyperbolic.
I'm not accusing anyone of anything, I'm just pointing out we have a political ideology that wants this and it is a long way out of the mainstream. "We want to isolate ourselves from China" is a radically fringe position in Australia. We are not a nationalist nation, we are a nation of immigrants with a very fluid identity. It would also be strategic suicide to antagonise the regional superpower.
We are not going to exclude China. If China wants to send students to Australia we are going to take them in and accept whatever money they have. That isn't an accusation, that is a frank assessment of what has been obvious in Australian politics for the last decade.
I feel for Hong Kong, I truly do, but China has a long reach now; much like America. You can't run from American influence anywhere in the world [0]. There is no hope of escaping China while still basically being in Asia.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition#Invest...
The reality of China’s population being 56,3 times that of Australia coupled with a non-democratic, expansionist government is great cause for concern.
The amount of influence China already exerts in Australia is alarming, as is evidenced by the property bubble they helped fuel by laundering money outside of the eyes of the communist party. Or the propaganda machine that prints free English language newspapers for distribution in major Australian capitals.
Business and government and intrinsically linked in China and Australia is well advised not to become China’s subservient lap dog.
Similar to how Sam Dastyari [1] was forced out after he'd been shown to receive significant donations. I'm not across this piece as much as I would like so I may be missing some nuance there.
I imagine China's influence in Australian State and Federal government to be a lot more pervasive than this. But it's more of a dirty secret than we're led to believe.
[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/12/sam-d...
just grab another VB sit back and watch then?
This concern about cyber is a problem, but if China needs to influence Aus it just needs to pick up the phone line to our PM. It doesn't need to make big moves via covert action, as much as it may try.