CHINA’S FIFTH COLUMN:


                         Melbourne, May 3, 2008 – To an old China hand the most puzzling news scenes over recent weeks have been the large and aggressive crowds of Chinese abroad who confronted Free-Tibet demonstrators during the global odyssey of the Olympic torch relay. 
                        Where did these Chinese patriots suddenly come from? Who paid for the buses, trains and planes that ferried them to the trouble spots in Europe, Australia and Asia?  Who ordered them to neutralize, if necessary by force, the pro-Tibetan clamor?

                          Who were these people?

                           Reading the news reports it was clear these fervent supporters of China’s defense of brutalities in Tibet were Chinese-Australian-French-English and European citizen and Chinese students who, when called upon by Beijing, quickly shed any loyalty to their adopted countries in favor of what most of them openly called ‘my country.’

                          In our era of massive transmigrations China, the most populous nation, has flooded the world with its citizen. Hardly a western country exists today in which large numbers of Chinese have not settled, do not study, work, legally or clandestinely or in which tens of thousands of former Chinese have not become citizen.  
  
                         If you have lived in China for eight years, as I have, you would expect these migrants or students to embrace the freedoms and rights we still offer our citizen. After all these Chinese escaped the straight-jacket of China’s totalitarianism with its muzzled information system, its police-state jurisdiction and the omnipotent control of one-party rule, in name communist in reality capitalist. 

                         Wrong. If one followed the explanations these pro-Chinese demonstrators offered the media they firmly believe what ‘our country’ (China) did in Tibet was justified. Tibet they insist is a part of China (something drummed into Chinese heads from the day they were born) the Dalai Lama is a ‘splitist,’ the 1959 invasion of Tibet was to bring Tibet back to the Motherland (to which it never belonged) and the western media not only misrepresents but misreports China – obviously unlike the state-controlled Chinese media which churns out official propaganda every day.

                          In the old days the emperors of China decreed the death penalty for anyone who left the “Middle Kingdom.” The Chinese who did leave remained quietly in their adopted countries. But today the new China not only encourages its young people to study abroad and return with the know-how collected in order to benefit the Motherland but sees all Chinese in the Diaspora as valuable assets that can be mobilized not only to support China financially and intellectually but also to be a lobby group for China.

                         China’s fabulous commercial clout has provided Beijing with undreamed power over a very short period. Which country dares to upset China, not only a provider of merchandise but a highly coveted client? This is why European nations and Australia permitted a special Chinese police squad to accompany the torch relay from Greece with powers to ‘defend’ the torch against any protests?
                             
                  This special squad, drawn from the Peoples Armed Police,  known as the official ‘thugs’ of China, behaved in London and Paris as if they were in their own country, punching, kicking those who tried to interfere with a torch passing not through Chinese but foreign territory.
 
                   Outraged by this behavior, which the British and French government tolerated, apparently in order not to upset their commercial deals with Beijing, Sebastian Coen, a former gold medalist and current chairman of the 2012 Olymic organization committee, defined these Chinese torch guardians as ‘thugs’ while a French official called them ‘robots and watchdogs.’

                  (Australian authorities isolated the squad of 40 ‘thugs’ when the torch moved through Canberra following the outrage over the squad’s heavy-handed methods in Paris and London.)

                  Few would dispute the Chinese make excellent workers and are usually an asset to the countries that adopted them. But the torch relay once again illustrated that when it comes to the crunch Chinese loyalty remains with Beijing not their host country.                  South East Asian nations, whose economies are largely run by ethnic Chinese, have experienced the dark side of this host role in the mid 1990s when their ethnic Chinese tycoons ‘exported’ their funds to finance investments in China instead of investing in their adopted countries. This contributed largely to the disastrous financial melt-down in South East Asia.

                 It is not uncommon in China for ‘orchestrated’ demonstrators to hold up “One China” banners. This is not a call for unity with Tibet (which is already considered an unalienable part of China) but Chinese determination to incorporate Taiwan.

                   But when those Chinese living in their adopted countries hold up “One China” placards in Paris, Canberra and London and intimidate with physical violence ‘Free-Tibet’ demonstrators one has to realize that Beijing’s formidable Fifth Column lives and works among us. (ends)