Where did you get your China facts?

Published in the Australian Financial Review 17 December 2017

In reference to the new foreign interference laws, Professor James Laurenceson, from the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology, warns the Australian Government and media not to offend the Chinese Government else Chinese consumers will stop buying, (Turnbull’s blowhard approach to China will cost us, 11 December).

Propaganda or science?  How did Professor Laurenceson measure opinion in a country where the people have no basic democratic freedom to vote or express opinions that offend the authoritarian regime?

Expression of opinion is extremely dangerous in China. Dissidents can expect a miserable and shortened life in jail. In Tibet since 2009, over 150 Tibetans, mostly monks have resorted to self-immolation as their only voice to world. The oppression is brutal.

Why would the majority of Chinese people, not linked to the regime, be offended by efforts to limit the coercive powers of the Chinese Government?

Academics have a professional obligation to speak the scientific truth. And a higher moral obligation to protect democratic values and basic human rights from value free economics. Value free trading with foreign powers has a high blowback price.

Tags: China, democracy, Human rights