{"id":39511,"date":"2018-05-24T11:30:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T01:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=39511"},"modified":"2018-05-24T13:49:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T03:49:13","slug":"breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Julie Bishop was playing a dangerous game when she privately blamed the Australian media\u2019s \u2018negative reports\u2019 for adversely affecting Australia\u2013China relations during her meeting with her Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the\u00a0G20 in Argentina this week.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Minister didn\u2019t include any mention that she had scapegoated Australia\u2019s fourth estate in her own rosy version<\/a> of the encounter, but Beijing made sure to highlight it in their version<\/a> of what they pointedly described as \u2018not an official bilateral meeting\u2019.<\/p>\n

No doubt Beijing will be delighted to amplify Bishop\u2019s message that the Australian media is to blame for the nadir in relations between the two countries. After all, it was the Chinese embassy in Canberra that first laid the blame on \u2018fake news\u2019<\/a> from the Australian media for \u2018harming mutual trust\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ever since the leader of the free world took to labelling reports he doesn\u2019t like in the US\u00a0media as \u2018fake news\u2019, Beijing\u2019s propagandists have adopted the term with gusto. Reports of Beijing\u2019s plans for a military base in Vanuatu? \u2018Fake news<\/a>,\u2019 according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Western reports of human rights lawyers being tortured? \u2018Fake news!<\/a>\u2019 according to the People\u2019s Daily.<\/em><\/p>\n

At any rate, Bishop\u2019s excuse for the deterioration in relations looked fairly hollow when, just a day later, her Western Australian Liberal Party colleague, Andrew Hastie, used parliamentary privilege to shine further light on the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s influence operations in Australia<\/a>. Pretending the Australian government doesn\u2019t have a beef with Beijing isn\u2019t going to cut it.<\/p>\n

Instead of standing up for the free press like Hastie did, the Foreign Minister and her diplomats in the Australian embassy in Beijing have been running down our media to their Chinese counterparts. As Fairfax\u2019s reporter in Beijing, Kirsty Needham, attests, blaming the Australian media has been \u2018the consistent line to the Chinese from DFAT<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

It has become depressingly routine for Australian billionaires doing business with China to denigrate the media. Just last week, Andrew \u2018Twiggy\u2019 Forrest , while standing next to Julie Bishop, moaned that the Australian media doesn\u2019t run the official government line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018They [Australia\u2019s media companies] don\u2019t have government endorsement. They are not the government voice. They are business people trying to sell a few newspapers,\u2019 Forrest told reporters gathered at his Cloudbreak mine. \u2018When it gets reprinted in China, it does break my heart.\u2019<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s another thing altogether for Australian diplomats, who according to DFAT\u2019s Foreign Policy White Paper<\/a>, are supposed to be \u2018determined advocate[s] of liberal institutions, universal values and human rights<\/a>\u2019, to do the same.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that the Australian media gets it right all the time. When Yancoal director and former China ambassador Geoff Raby claimed that ASIO was the \u2018most likely source<\/a>\u2019 for the Dastyari\/Huang Xiangmo phone-tap story leak in a recent blog post, the Australian media repeated it uncritically.<\/p>\n

Left out of the<\/a> reports <\/a>was the crucial context that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had specifically ruled out ASIO\u2019s involvement. The claim that particular leak was \u2018intelligence agency\u2013sourced\u2019 has been repeated in the media<\/a> despite the fact that there are other, much more probable explanations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, Raby\u2019s claim was immediately picked up by the fiercely nationalistic Communist Party mouthpiece, the Global Times<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>And once that media cycle had run its course, Raby fed the beast once again by dramatically calling for Julie Bishop to be sacked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an entirely predictable feedback loop that is reportedly frustrating our Beijing-based diplomats immensely<\/a>. But instead of blaming the media, the government needs to start thinking outside the box.<\/p>\n

For one thing, the Australian government should be giving diplomats sufficient resources and leeway to be more on the front foot with their digital diplomacy efforts in China on platforms like Weibo and WeChat. Public diplomacy is vital, and doubly so when bilateral relations occasionally sour.<\/p>\n

As my upcoming report on \u2018Weibo diplomacy and censorship in China<\/a>\u2019 will show, the Australian embassy barely makes it into the top\u00a010 foreign embassy accounts on that platform, and is clearly hesitant to be on the front foot with its messaging.<\/p>\n

While the Australian government vacillates, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is aggressively running his own line on Chinese social media<\/a>. Instead of blaming the media, Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull should at least join Weibo and take part in the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julie Bishop was playing a dangerous game when she privately blamed the Australian media\u2019s \u2018negative reports\u2019 for adversely affecting Australia\u2013China relations during her meeting with her Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the\u00a0G20 in Argentina …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":714,"featured_media":39512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,52,224],"class_list":["post-39511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBreaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Julie Bishop was playing a dangerous game when she privately blamed the Australian media\u2019s \u2018negative reports\u2019 for adversely affecting Australia\u2013China relations during her meeting with her Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the\u00a0G20 in Argentina ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T01:30:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T03:49:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bishop.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"364\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fergus Ryan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fergus Ryan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bishop.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bishop.jpg\",\"width\":648,\"height\":364},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-24T01:30:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-24T03:49:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a\",\"name\":\"Fergus Ryan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fergus Ryan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/fergus-ryan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop | The Strategist","og_description":"Julie Bishop was playing a dangerous game when she privately blamed the Australian media\u2019s \u2018negative reports\u2019 for adversely affecting Australia\u2013China relations during her meeting with her Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the\u00a0G20 in Argentina ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2018-05-24T01:30:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-24T03:49:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":648,"height":364,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bishop.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fergus Ryan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fergus Ryan","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bishop.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bishop.jpg","width":648,"height":364},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/","name":"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2018-05-24T01:30:12+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-24T03:49:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/breaking-the-australia-china-media-feedback-loop\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking the Australia\u2013China media feedback loop"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a","name":"Fergus Ryan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Fergus Ryan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/fergus-ryan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/714"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39528,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39511\/revisions\/39528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}