Kirsty Needham, The Age
Image from article, with caption: Experts say its time to end the "demonisation"of Chinese students in Australia.
Beijing: Former spy boss Allan Gyngell has backed a call for politicians to avoid demonising people of Chinese heritage, and for intelligence agencies to prove claims of foreign intereference [sic] by the Chinese government.
The submission to a review of the Turnbull Government's foreign interference bill calls for an independent assessment of the proposed law by experts, who could publicly examine the intelligence evidence.
Experts say its time to end the "demonisation"of Chinese students in Australia.
Australia's first ambassador to China, Stephen Fitzgerald, has also endorsed the submission, which says Australian citizens "object to being perceived as less 'Australian' if they are immensely proud of their Chinese heritage and admire the accomplishments of the [People's Republic of China] over the past decades".
"Australians of Chinese heritage should not have to fear being looked upon by their colleagues, neighbours or society at large as 'stooges' of the Communist Party of China ... if they also feel proud of China's rich cultural heritage," the submission says.
The 170,000 international students from China studying at Australian universities should also not be demonised by politicians amid the debate on foreign interference, it said.
On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy issued a safety warning to Chinese students in Australia and provided emergency assistance contact numbers.
International education is Australia's third largest export industry, worth $21.8 billion annually, and is dominated by Chinese students.
The embassy's safety warning came on the same day that Australian media reported the maiden speech to parliament of new Liberal senator and retired defence official Jim Molan, who warned of a risk of war with China.
FBI director Chris Wray has also told a US committee that Chinese students in the US were a security risk and needed to be monitored by the FBI, comments widely reported in the Chinese media, including Australian websites popular with Chinese students.
American civil liberties and Asian-American groups responded saying Mr Wray's testimony was "insulting".
The chief executive of the China Matters think tank, Linda Jakobson, lodged the submission on the federal parliament's foreign interference bill, after a meeting on Wednesday of its influential board, which includes Mr Gyngell, Professor Fitzgerald, and Michael Wesley, who is the Australian National University's dean of the college of Asia and the Pacific.
Signed by all board directors, the statement says it is vital to strike a proper balance between ensuring the Chinese government doesn't interfere unlawfully in Australian affairs, and respecting the diverse views of numerous Chinese-Australian communities.
It states: "[Chinese] diplomats, like all diplomats, have the right to conduct public diplomacy (ie, meet with Australians and promote [China] in a positive light) provided it takes place in a transparent manner and is in accordance with the law."
The political debate over allegations of foreign interference by the Chinese government "risk seriously damaging social cohesion", and the public needed to be provided with the facts about any wrong-doing.
"It is essential in a democratic society that our security agencies develop the practices and skills to be able to communicate with the public on matters that affect our democratic rights, without compromising their operations or detailed intelligence information," the submission said.
University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence responded to the safety warning issued to Chinese students by saying the university takes the welfare of students "very seriously" and had services and networks in place to support them.
"Good relationships between China and Australia are important to the future of Australia including to our higher education sector, for more than financial reasons," he said.
He said universities needed to be able to bring students from other cultures onto campuses and allow academics to "pursue their research freely across borders".
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