FDC Submission to the Joint Standing Committee
of the Parliament
to push for an Australian Magnitsky Act

28 January 2020

Submission to the Inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
on whether Australia should enact legislation comparable to the United States Magnitsky Act 2012

The Federation for a Democratic China (FDC) would like to make a submission to the inquiry into whether Australia should enact legislation comparable to the United States Magnitsky Act 2012.

The FDC represents members of Chinese-Australians committed to democracy and the democratic values of Australia. The FDC was founded in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, which aimed to end the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship and set up a constitutional democracy in China. The FDC remains committed to those values.

This submission will relate to the use of an act similar to the US Global Magnitsky Act in reference to mainland China only, as that is the country I come from and the country about which I have considerable knowledge.

In addition of all regimes that are guilty of inhuman rights abuses the Beijing regime is infinitely the one presently most closely engaged with Australia.

I am President of Federation for a Democratic China, an international organization that was formed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Australia needs an act similar atop the US Global Magnitsky Act in particular to sanction Chinese communist officials who might be travelling to Australia or investing in Australia or buying real estate in Australia.

Verbally condemning the Chinese Communist regime for any human rights violations is pointless as it has no effect - the Chinese regime simply either dismiss the condemnations as an attempt to interfere in their domestic affairs or deny that the atrocities are happening.

Preventing travel to Australia by or freezing the assets in Australia of any Chinese Communist operative who has engaged in human rights violations would be an extremely effective weapon in preventing human rights abuses by the Beijing regime, as the regime depends for its existence on its global economic empire.

Wealthy citizens of mainland China are anxious to invest their money in safe havens off shore because there is no safe way to invest money on the mainland and if they are investigated for corruption their assets can be seized at any time, and the nearest safe haven is Australia. A wealthy citizen of mainland China by definition means a citizen who is a Communist Party member and therefore part of the regime because only such people are allowed to become wealthy.

If there is instituted an act similar to the US Global Magnitsky Act the fact that economic ties between mainland China and Australia may thereby be harmed in enforcing the act in any particular case, must be regarded as being of no consequence as human rights issues must always take precedence over economic issues.

The current main areas in which gross human rights abuses are being carried out by the Chinese Communist regime are:

Organ Harvesting of Prisoners

Prisoners of conscience, mostly Falun Gong practitioners but also Uighurs, Christians and other political dissidents are kept in labour camps like lobsters in a tank in a restaurant and systematically killed on demand when their blood type matches so their organs can be sold for transplant. This has been established beyond all doubt on 17th June 2019, when the China Tribunal, an independent Tribunal into forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC concluded after examining all the evidence that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China against Falun Gong practitioners and other minority and religious groups like the Muslim Uighurs and Christians and Buddhists are the victims. This has been documented in every respectable news media you could name – the Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC, SBS, Reuters, NBC, Sky News and the BBC.

An actual case in point demonstrating the need for a Magnitsky Act occurred on April 30, 2013 when NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge called for the University of Sydney to withdraw the Honorary Professorship from the Chinese transplant surgeon Huang Jiefu. He said “The key institutions in this State, whether it is the Parliament or our universities, must not stand by and become complicit in the grossly unethical trade in human organs, The University of Sydney should immediately withdraw the Honorary Professorship from the Chinese transplant surgeon Huang Jiefu. Mr Huang Jiefu is China’s former vice-minister for health and for over a decade has been a leading surgeon transplanting livers that were almost all forcibly harvested from executed prisoners. The good name of a University is tarnished every time it places narrow economic interests ahead of the traditional commitment to a liberal and just society. Instead of promoting this grossly unethical practice of international organ trafficking we should be doing all we can to stop it.”

Cultural Genocide of the Uighurs

As part of a new plan to wipe out all religions in the borders of Greater China millions of Muslim Uighurs from East Turkestan have been interred in concentration camps, This is a massive operation and there are numerous military and civilian officials involved who might for some reason want to travel to Australia of buy property in Australia.

Cultural Genocide of the Tibetans

Since 1950 the Chinse Communist regime has indulged in cultural genocide against Tibet which has involved occupying their land, imprisoning and killing dissidents and wiping out their religion (Tibetan Buddhism), exploiting the resources of their land and erasing their history and culture. As with the Uighurs there are numerous military and civilian officials involved in the occupation of Tibet who might for some reason want to travel to Australia or buy property in Australia.

Suppression of Christianity

Officially Christianity is being wiped out in China, although millions of Chinese people follow Christianity. Christian churches are regularly bulldozed and dissident Christians are imprisoned. Officially sanctioned churches are required to display portraits of Mao or the current dictator Xi. Communist party observers are required to sit in on all services to see that no anti-communist or counter revolutionary sentiments are expressed.

Officials not involved in organ harvesting or the suppression of the Uyghurs or the suppression of the Tibetans could be involved in the campaign against Christianity.

Suppression of Pro-Democracy Protests in Hong Kong

The unelected Government of Hong Kong assisted by their masters on the mainland is violently suppressing mass demonstration by residents who do not want to live under the totalitarian regime in Beijing but want to enjoy what is left of the civilized Government left them by the British.

There would be many officials of the Hong Kong administration attempting to purchase property or to invest in Australia. Under a Magnitsky Act of these could be subject to sanctions.

Use of Slave Labour of Political Prisoners to Produce Cheap Manufactured Goods

China’s export power is partly based on slave labour. Political prisoners in the concentration camps called the Lao Gai are used to produce labour-intensive cheap goods. With a Magnitsky Act any Chinese exporter selling goods to Australia could be required to prove that their products are not being made in prisons by slave labour.

China’s ruling communist party elite, the military (so-called Peoples Liberation Army) and China’s economic imperialism are all interconnected in one big machine, as described by John Garnaut, formerly Fairfax’s China’s correspondent (2007–13) and Asia-Pacific Editor (2014–15), Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Nov 2015 – Sept 2016), and Principal Advisor (International) at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Oct 2016 – Jun 2017). He said in an essay in themonthly.com.au August 2018 “The CCP’s international influence system is a complex, subtle and deeply institutionalised set of inducements and threats designed to shape the way outsiders talk, think and behave. The modus operandi is to offer privileged access, build personal rapport and reward those who deliver. It seeks common interests and cultivates relationships of dependency with chosen partners. The Party uses overt propaganda and diplomacy, quasi-covert fronts and proxies, and covert operations to frame debates, manage perceptions, and tilt the political and strategic landscape to its advantage.

“Beyond the foundational assumption of a single, civilizational “China”, the specific demands of United Front work are framed by permutations of three narratives: China is inherently peaceful and beneficent, the growth of Chinese power is inexorable, and China is vengeful and dangerous if provoked.

“These narratives are internally contradictory but consistent over time. The first two are delivered openly by leaders, diplomats and state propaganda. The third is usually delivered via back channels with plausibly deniable connections to the state: PLA “hawks”, specialist military hardware websites, academic forums, personal meetings with top leaders, editorials in the Global Times. Together, this messaging orchestra is designed to condition audiences into believing that the rewards are great, resistance is futile, and outright opposition may be suicidal.

“The meta-narrative of Beijing’s ever-growing power is the drumbeat that accompanies China’s policies of territorial coercion across its southern and eastern seas. It is the subtext that persuades foreign governments to remain silent as Beijing abandons restraint in the restive borderlands of Tibet and Xinjiang. It is also the incentive for economic beneficiaries to avoid seeing, or to rationalise, or to even actively support the Party’s efforts to degrade the values and institutions of civil society.”

This sums up why FDC would like to see a Magnitsky Act in Australia enacted.

Any Chinese businessman or official suspected of taking part in or profiting from the genocide of the Uighurs, the genocide of Tibetans, or organ harvesting could be sanctioned.

The necessity for the law is particularly great at the moment because Communist China is building an empire throughout the world taking over ports public utilities, airports and farmland in every continent including Australia.

Chin Jin
President
Federation for a Democratic China