Hidden Hand (book)
 | |
| Author | Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Chinese Communist Party's influence operations, Australia–China relations[1] |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Set in | Australia and the People's Republic of China |
| Publisher | Hardie Grant (Australia), Optimum Publishing International (North America). |
Publication date | 4 May 2020 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Pages | 448 |
| ISBN | 9781743795576 (Paperback) |
| OCLC | 1150166864 |
| Preceded by | Silent Invasion: China's influence in Australia[1] |
| Website | Hidden Hand (book) at the Internet Archive |
Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World is a 2020 book by Australians Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg, and is a follow-up of Hamilton's 2018 book Silent Invasion. The book details the claim of "the Chinese Communist Party's global program of influence and subversion, and the threat it poses to democracy".[1][2]
The book details what the authors describe as "the nature and extent of the Chinese Communist Party's influence operations across the Western world – in politics, business, universities, think tanks and international institutions such as the UN. This new authoritarian power is using democracy to undermine democracy in pursuit of its global ambitions".[3]
Andrew Podger wrote in his book review in The Conversation that while it was extremely detailed, it was not a balanced and scholarly document. He said that while Hamilton and Ohlberg wanted to respond to Chinese influence by rejecting liberal economics and strengthening democratic politics, what was needed was actually a combination of both.[4]
The Japanese translation was published by Asuka Shinsha Publishing as Invisible Hand: How Is the Chinese Communist Party Reshaping the World? (見えない手 中国共産党は世界をどう作り変えるか; ISBN 9784864108010) on December 25, 2020.[5]
In June 2020, the 48 Group Club and its chairman Stephen Perry launched a libel lawsuit in a failed attempt to block the publication of the book in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[6][7][8]
- ^ a b c "Hidden Hand". Retrieved 24 October 2020.
- ^ "Book, Report Spark Concern Over China's UK Elite Influence Operations". Radio Free Asia. 17 July 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ "Hidden Hand". Retrieved 24 October 2020.
- ^ Podger, Andrew. "Book Review: Hidden Hand – Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
- ^ "Invisible Hand: How Is the Chinese Communist Party Reshaping the World? (見えない手 中国共産党は世界をどう作り変えるか)". Asuka Shinsha Publishing (in Japanese). December 2020. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ Fife, Robert; Chase, Steven (19 June 2020). "Legal challenge halts Canadian, U.S. and U.K. release of book critical of Chinese Communist Party". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
- ^ Nuttall, Jeremy (18 June 2020). "Legal troubles threaten to derail Canadian launch of book about Beijing's influence operations". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
- ^ Quinn, Jimmy (23 June 2020). "The Strange Attempt to Stop a New Book on China's Global Influence". National Review. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- Hidden Hand (book) at the Internet Archive
- https://archive.org/details/hidden-hand-exposing-how-the-chinese-communist-party-is-reshaping-the-world
Product description
Review
'Revelatory... A detailed and necessary examination.'-- "Sunday Times"
'A remarkable book with a chilling message... The book's convincing message is plain... Everyone must stay on their guard.'--Will Hutton, Guardian
'[Hidden Hand] should be required reading for anyone working in government and policy, the private sector, or media -- really, for anyone with a stake in resisting the shadowy machinations of a totalitarian regime that seeks to exert its will on free societies.'-- "National Review"
'It takes courage to prod somnolent liberal democracies out of their complacent and dangerous incomprehension of the CCP. We are in Hamilton's and Ohlberg's debt.'--Journal of Democracy
'An in-depth explanation of how China conducts its operations to gain important knowledge - ranging from tech secrets to financial information.'-- "International Business Times"
'Hidden Hand is heavily sourced, crisply written and deeply alarming.'-- "The Times"
'Hidden Hand should be required reading for our diplomats, intelligence analysts, military officers and businesspeople.'-- "The Australian"
About the Author
Clive Hamilton is an Australian academic and the author of Silent Invasion, a national bestseller revealing China's influence operations in Australia. He has written for the Guardian, New York Times, Foreign Affairs and THES.
Mareike Ohlberg is a senior fellow in the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund. While at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, she co-authored the landmark report 'Authoritarian Advance: Responding to China's Growing Political Influence in Europe'. She has written for the New York Times, Foreign Affairs and Neue Zurcher Zeitung.
Product details
Publisher : Oneworld Publications (16 July 2020)
Language : English
Hardcover : 432 pages
From other countries
Georg Erwin Thaller
Hidden Hand
Reviewed in Germany on 10 July 2021In the 1960s, after Sputnik, the bosses of the communist party in Moscow believed that they soon would rule the world. It did not happen. The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the fall of the wall in Berlin, come as a shock to the Chinese communist Party (CCP).
In Peking, the Cold War never ended. The approach of the CCP is much broader than the attempt of the brothers in Moscow. Who could imagine a KGB thug rooting out plants in a field in the US mid-west? This soil had been rented by Monsanto, and the plants were genetically modified. Intellectual property is protected by US law, so stealing these plants was a crime. The FBI appeared on the scene.
The term new silk road sounds harmless, but what does it mean? Ports in Europe are bought by Chinese enterprises, controlled by the CCP. Think of Piraeus in Greece, or Trieste in Italy. A production line for robots in Augsburg is acquired, and the German government does nothing.
Ambassadors of western States in Peking are turned and praise China at home. They haven’t understood that the CCP and the state of China are the same entity.
Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg thoroughly reveal the methods of the CCP in a number of areas: The economy, the chinese diaspora in the west, culture, the media, thinks tanks and finance.
It’s high time the western democracies wake up. The aggressive CCP cannot be tolerated.
George Thaller, author
In Peking, the Cold War never ended. The approach of the CCP is much broader than the attempt of the brothers in Moscow. Who could imagine a KGB thug rooting out plants in a field in the US mid-west? This soil had been rented by Monsanto, and the plants were genetically modified. Intellectual property is protected by US law, so stealing these plants was a crime. The FBI appeared on the scene.
The term new silk road sounds harmless, but what does it mean? Ports in Europe are bought by Chinese enterprises, controlled by the CCP. Think of Piraeus in Greece, or Trieste in Italy. A production line for robots in Augsburg is acquired, and the German government does nothing.
Ambassadors of western States in Peking are turned and praise China at home. They haven’t understood that the CCP and the state of China are the same entity.
Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg thoroughly reveal the methods of the CCP in a number of areas: The economy, the chinese diaspora in the west, culture, the media, thinks tanks and finance.
It’s high time the western democracies wake up. The aggressive CCP cannot be tolerated.
George Thaller, author
One person found this helpful
Christine S.
excellent book! great history!
Reviewed in Canada on 6 November 2023A great primer for understanding the world's "other superpower". vitally important to understanding the history and culture ! I enjoyed this book immensely.
If the world doesn't make sense to you, turn off the news, and read this book. it answers many questions.
If the world doesn't make sense to you, turn off the news, and read this book. it answers many questions.
G.C.
Read this book
Reviewed in the United States on 25 September 2020Hidden Hand is written by two academics. Clive Hamilton is an Australian academic, who is currently professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra. Mareike Ohlberg is a senior fellow in the Asia Programme of the German Marshall Fund. Prior to that she worked for the German think tank; the Mercator Institute of China Studies.
Hidden Hand interest piqued
Both of them are seasoned China watchers. China is a popular subject and Hidden Hand would have just gone into my Amazon wishlist but for the 48 Group Club. The 48 Group Club is a British China-orientated association that fosters cultural and social ties. It had threatened legal action over content that they alleged was incorrect or defamatory. My interest in Hidden Hand was piqued.
So What’s it like?
Hamilton and Ohlberg have pulled together an account of China’s relationships with various elites in countries around the world and intergovernmental bodies such as WHO. Having kept an eye on China for over a decade, little of the content was new for me.
What I found was new, was the the way it is woven together in a cohesive pattern of activity in the Hidden Hand. A sustained, pervasive bid for global influence on a scale that most people couldn’t imagine. And those that could imagine would likely be thought of as excessively paranoid.
One thing that immediately comes across is the depth of research that the Hidden Hand contains. The index and bibliography are a big chunk of the book. The facts come thick and fast, but delivered in a dispassionate manner.
The reframe
This book wouldn’t be as well received if it had been published 12 months ago. A split between Wall Street and manufacturing company CEOs, COVID and the steady drip of diplomatic clashes that China has had with western countries have reframed the view for Hidden Hand. Now you have an audience that is more receptive. They are more willing to take an objective, critical analysis of China rather than give them the benefit of the doubt like an errant teenager.
Missing answers
Hidden Hand tries to come up with starting points for answers. Holding elites accountable. Engaging members of the Chinese diaspora. Taking a multilateral stand. All of which are hard to do. There are changes happening to espionage related laws in the UK. The EU is taking a more policy-based approach and Trump administration officials have talked about US CEOs as being unregistered foreign agents. This is a long term battle, something that will go for decades.
The Wall Street CEOs will be hunkering down; hoping to out wait Trump. In Europe and the UK, the root and branch work required to inoculate their countries are not yet underway.
The final missing piece from the Hidden Hand is understanding the first generation Chinese diaspora. In particular the way the communist party has successfully grafted itself into the very centre of what it means to be Chinese. And then thinking carefully about how to decouple that idea.
Hidden Hand interest piqued
Both of them are seasoned China watchers. China is a popular subject and Hidden Hand would have just gone into my Amazon wishlist but for the 48 Group Club. The 48 Group Club is a British China-orientated association that fosters cultural and social ties. It had threatened legal action over content that they alleged was incorrect or defamatory. My interest in Hidden Hand was piqued.
So What’s it like?
Hamilton and Ohlberg have pulled together an account of China’s relationships with various elites in countries around the world and intergovernmental bodies such as WHO. Having kept an eye on China for over a decade, little of the content was new for me.
What I found was new, was the the way it is woven together in a cohesive pattern of activity in the Hidden Hand. A sustained, pervasive bid for global influence on a scale that most people couldn’t imagine. And those that could imagine would likely be thought of as excessively paranoid.
One thing that immediately comes across is the depth of research that the Hidden Hand contains. The index and bibliography are a big chunk of the book. The facts come thick and fast, but delivered in a dispassionate manner.
The reframe
This book wouldn’t be as well received if it had been published 12 months ago. A split between Wall Street and manufacturing company CEOs, COVID and the steady drip of diplomatic clashes that China has had with western countries have reframed the view for Hidden Hand. Now you have an audience that is more receptive. They are more willing to take an objective, critical analysis of China rather than give them the benefit of the doubt like an errant teenager.
Missing answers
Hidden Hand tries to come up with starting points for answers. Holding elites accountable. Engaging members of the Chinese diaspora. Taking a multilateral stand. All of which are hard to do. There are changes happening to espionage related laws in the UK. The EU is taking a more policy-based approach and Trump administration officials have talked about US CEOs as being unregistered foreign agents. This is a long term battle, something that will go for decades.
The Wall Street CEOs will be hunkering down; hoping to out wait Trump. In Europe and the UK, the root and branch work required to inoculate their countries are not yet underway.
The final missing piece from the Hidden Hand is understanding the first generation Chinese diaspora. In particular the way the communist party has successfully grafted itself into the very centre of what it means to be Chinese. And then thinking carefully about how to decouple that idea.
15 people found this helpful
Bhaskar Dasgupta
The Other way round.
Reviewed in India on 9 November 2020The art of communication has turned amazingly equivocal ever since the French masters dabbled in semiotics. 'Hidden hand' apparently is a no-nonsense exploration of China all set to to win over the Western democratic ethos. I being a third world citizen enjoy this game from the rampart and revel at seeing the Western democracy comes out loser as we are well aware of the balderdash that goes in the name of upholding Western Democratic Values.
2 people found this helpful
Hernani Giuliano
Decepção com o tamanho
Reviewed in Brazil on 24 December 2022muito pequeno.
Joseph
シャープ・パワーとしての中国
Reviewed in Japan on 9 September 2020中国共産党は世界をどう支配しようとしているのか？その一部分が読み取れました。
金の力、在外中国人、大使館・総領事館などを使い、各国政府(特に欧州や北米)、多国籍企業、経済団体、シンクタンク、大学、芸術、国連機関に自らの影響力を行使、中国共産党の支配を広めていく図が見えました。(中国のこのような手法を「シャープ・パワー」と呼ぶ)
本書では触れられていませんでしたが、2020年7月1日に施行された香港国家安全維持法(国安法)には、適用範囲は香港だけでなく、地球全体(解釈次第では宇宙全域)に及ぶと記されています。国安法にも、中国共産党の支配と中国共産党の支配に逆らうものはどこの誰でも容赦しない、経済力などありとあらゆる力で潰すぞという意図が表れているのでしょうか。
しかし、欲を言うなら、もう少し日本を含む東アジアや第3世界(アジア・アフリカ)にも焦点を当ててほしかったです。米シンクタンクCSISに「媚中派」と呼ばれた自民党の二階幹事長、日中記者交換協定で香港やウイグル問題を報道できないマスコミ…日本のことを書いても一冊の本ができるのではないでしょうか
金の力、在外中国人、大使館・総領事館などを使い、各国政府(特に欧州や北米)、多国籍企業、経済団体、シンクタンク、大学、芸術、国連機関に自らの影響力を行使、中国共産党の支配を広めていく図が見えました。(中国のこのような手法を「シャープ・パワー」と呼ぶ)
本書では触れられていませんでしたが、2020年7月1日に施行された香港国家安全維持法(国安法)には、適用範囲は香港だけでなく、地球全体(解釈次第では宇宙全域)に及ぶと記されています。国安法にも、中国共産党の支配と中国共産党の支配に逆らうものはどこの誰でも容赦しない、経済力などありとあらゆる力で潰すぞという意図が表れているのでしょうか。
しかし、欲を言うなら、もう少し日本を含む東アジアや第3世界(アジア・アフリカ)にも焦点を当ててほしかったです。米シンクタンクCSISに「媚中派」と呼ばれた自民党の二階幹事長、日中記者交換協定で香港やウイグル問題を報道できないマスコミ…日本のことを書いても一冊の本ができるのではないでしょうか
16 people found this helpful
Rogerio da Silva
Shocked, Amazed, Thoughtful and Upset - Almost unbelievable, but it makes totally sense
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2020I always had a feeling about that, but now it seems to be falling into pieces.
I'm reading and it is quite a revelation, and a lot makes sense, and you probably can relate to things that have been happening in your country as they use the same strategy, maybe slightly different here and there but in general, they are the same tactics and suddenly starts to make sense.
I can not stress enough, if you want answers of what's going in, this will give a glimpse of that.
I can see the pattern relating my country Brazil, where I live, UK, and because is in our faces, the US and all the other countries that are mostly on the news and social media, the pattern is there, just could not get much of the answer.
It's like a big puzzle suddenly starting to make sense.
Awesome book and how the info has been put together.
I'm reading and it is quite a revelation, and a lot makes sense, and you probably can relate to things that have been happening in your country as they use the same strategy, maybe slightly different here and there but in general, they are the same tactics and suddenly starts to make sense.
I can not stress enough, if you want answers of what's going in, this will give a glimpse of that.
I can see the pattern relating my country Brazil, where I live, UK, and because is in our faces, the US and all the other countries that are mostly on the news and social media, the pattern is there, just could not get much of the answer.
It's like a big puzzle suddenly starting to make sense.
Awesome book and how the info has been put together.
2 people found this helpful
Silesia
They knew this half a century ago.
Reviewed in Germany on 3 June 2021(Not so) funny: in my conversations with Red Guards in the People‘s Republic in 1967/68, I heard pretty much identical predictions of what this book tells us today. I pitied those kids, fervent admirers of Marx and Engels, for their outrageous lunacy.
Gerrit van der Wees
An important wake-up call re. Chinese influence operations
Reviewed in the United States on 17 October 2020It is now becoming increasingly clear that during the past four decades, the Chinese government has built up an incredibly widespread network of influence operations in many parts of the world. Earlier works on this network in specific countries were Clive Hamilton’s Silent Invasion (2018) on the influence operations in Australia, and Jonathan Manthorpe’s The Claws of the Panda (Febr. 2019), describing how China had been able to infiltrate the Canadian political system, exerting undue influence on Canadian government, educational institutions, and business.
But now there is a comprehensive work that covers Chinese influence operations in many corners of the world: Hidden Hand, Exposing how the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World, by the same Clive Hamilton, working together with German China scholar Mareike Ohlberg. The result is a rich trove of examples of how the Beijing regime operates is different parts of the world.
Hamilton and Ohlberg do an excellent job in describing how Beijing has organized the activities under a wide umbrella of United Front organizations with rich-sounding names like The China Association for International Friendly Contact, the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, and the U.S. National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification.
An important method used is to influence political elites, and Hamilton and Ohlberg have a separate chapter each for North America, Europe and the periphery, in each case giving a number of examples of how Beijing was able to influence key figures in each region. The book goes into significant detail on how a number of retired politicians and former diplomats sold their soul to the CCP and became a mouthpiece for the repressive regime.
Last but not least, the book dedicates a chapter on “reshaping global governance”, highlighting the sinister and pervasive ways in which China has been able to turn international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the ICAO, Interpol and even the UN itself into pliant groupings which will do little to counter the Chinese narrative designed to reshape these organizations with only one goal in mind: make them subordinate to the PRC’s interests.
The book is an important wake-up call for both Americans and Europeans. It is, designed to show how pervasive the influence operations have become, and of course intended to start a comprehensive push-back in order to safeguard not only hard-won values such as freedom and democracy, but also protect the very foundations of the liberal rules-based international order, which are being undermined by China’s actions.
But now there is a comprehensive work that covers Chinese influence operations in many corners of the world: Hidden Hand, Exposing how the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World, by the same Clive Hamilton, working together with German China scholar Mareike Ohlberg. The result is a rich trove of examples of how the Beijing regime operates is different parts of the world.
Hamilton and Ohlberg do an excellent job in describing how Beijing has organized the activities under a wide umbrella of United Front organizations with rich-sounding names like The China Association for International Friendly Contact, the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, and the U.S. National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification.
An important method used is to influence political elites, and Hamilton and Ohlberg have a separate chapter each for North America, Europe and the periphery, in each case giving a number of examples of how Beijing was able to influence key figures in each region. The book goes into significant detail on how a number of retired politicians and former diplomats sold their soul to the CCP and became a mouthpiece for the repressive regime.
Last but not least, the book dedicates a chapter on “reshaping global governance”, highlighting the sinister and pervasive ways in which China has been able to turn international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the ICAO, Interpol and even the UN itself into pliant groupings which will do little to counter the Chinese narrative designed to reshape these organizations with only one goal in mind: make them subordinate to the PRC’s interests.
The book is an important wake-up call for both Americans and Europeans. It is, designed to show how pervasive the influence operations have become, and of course intended to start a comprehensive push-back in order to safeguard not only hard-won values such as freedom and democracy, but also protect the very foundations of the liberal rules-based international order, which are being undermined by China’s actions.
4 people found this helpful
JGB
Full of accurate information.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 May 2024It’s a serious well researched book but it’s not easy reading.
That’s definitely not a criticism.
It’s a book packed with information much of which will probably surprise you.
Highly recommended
That’s definitely not a criticism.
It’s a book packed with information much of which will probably surprise you.
Highly recommended
From Australia
Reviewed in Australia on 14 August 2020
Very important book for the times.
If you still believe in freedom, have gratitude for the abundance we ALL enjoy and can still see through all the blatant manipulation of today and have still not yet been brainwashed; - then this is truly essential reading.
Pragmatic, factual, with references galore (for those amongst us who won’t believe, let alone repeat anything before a thorough cross-check!) this book reads less like biased op-ed, and more like a political textbook. That said, it is not too heavy-going or tedious to read.
Without resorting to cheap shock-tactics or emotional blackmail, without spilling toxic partisan vitriol or a self-interested/blinded personal agenda, it is still a gripping yet impartial read. The author is clearly dedicated, knowledgeable and comes from a well-intentioned, Impartial and well-informed place.
Buy it now in case things go downhill and it gets banned..! (And as an outcome, That is looking less and less unlikely by the day)
Knowledge is power, - even when it’s unpleasant. Arm yourself. Xxx And big love xxX
P.S Diversify your sources of info.
Search for opportunities to be proven wrong.
Consider the arguements of experts from all sides of an issue
Check the bureau of statistics to verify data presented to you before you believe it.
If you still believe in freedom, have gratitude for the abundance we ALL enjoy and can still see through all the blatant manipulation of today and have still not yet been brainwashed; - then this is truly essential reading.
Pragmatic, factual, with references galore (for those amongst us who won’t believe, let alone repeat anything before a thorough cross-check!) this book reads less like biased op-ed, and more like a political textbook. That said, it is not too heavy-going or tedious to read.
Without resorting to cheap shock-tactics or emotional blackmail, without spilling toxic partisan vitriol or a self-interested/blinded personal agenda, it is still a gripping yet impartial read. The author is clearly dedicated, knowledgeable and comes from a well-intentioned, Impartial and well-informed place.
Buy it now in case things go downhill and it gets banned..! (And as an outcome, That is looking less and less unlikely by the day)
Knowledge is power, - even when it’s unpleasant. Arm yourself. Xxx And big love xxX
P.S Diversify your sources of info.
Search for opportunities to be proven wrong.
Consider the arguements of experts from all sides of an issue
Check the bureau of statistics to verify data presented to you before you believe it.
Reviewed in Australia on 11 December 2020
Excellent collaboration between the two authors, writing remote from each other. This book will alarm China appeasers. Careful review of the United Front puppets working in many countries, and China's unique view of the role of diplomats and consular staff. No doubt my review will lead to any visa applications I submit in future being refused.
Reviewed in Australia on 24 October 2020
An excellent book on the dodgy workings of the CCP. Sadly communists have used sneaky tactics for 70 years and continue to undermine the world and their own people and humanity. Read this book and you see again and again the tactics described in this book and supported by the CCPs banning of Hamilton and expulsion of Australian journalists.
Reviewed in Australia on 16 July 2020
This book is an eye opener. I have an interest in Australian Politics and have followed a few of the careers of some of our Politicians, how ever this book brought out the back room dealings and the skulduggery which goes on under the surface. A real eye opener.
Reviewed in Australia on 24 July 2020
I am proud that an Australian author has co-authored to put this forth for those interested in intelligence, foreign interference and espionage. But I am also simultaneously dismayed there is not a single bit of attention paid to India, no mention of border wars and no acknowledgement of long standing conflicts, land theft and the economic, political and military rivalry. The biggest terrorist operation is under the world's nose; China's funding of Myanmar terrorists, Red Rebels (Maoists) and of course, Pakistan - influence over Nepal and taking of Tibet. Australia is one pawn in a large game of 'Go' for Xitler Ping. And we need to acknowledge the important players and history on it.
Reviewed in Australia on 18 October 2020
I thought this book was really informative, I personally found the language of this book too difficult for my reading level, but I gave it a crack anyway. Definitely a good book to gain insight into the Chinese Communist Party!
Reviewed in Australia on 22 March 2021
the incursion of China into Australia
what we should know
plenty of surprises here
what we should know
plenty of surprises here
Reviewed in Australia on 3 May 2021
Show you the strategy China use in infiltrating foreign power and location
This article is more than 3 years old
Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg’s startling book about how the Chinese Communist party has spread its tentacles throughout the world is vital reading
Will Hutton
Tue 11 Aug 2020 16.00 AEST
Share
238
This is a remarkable book with a chilling message. The Chinese Communist party, for which dominating rural China in order to encircle its cities and win the civil war is part of its historic backstory, is now intent on doing the same internationally. Using whatever lever comes to hand – generously financing a thinktank in Washington, owning a part-share of Rotterdam port, encouraging “friendship” clubs like Britain’s 48 Group Club – it is aiming to create an international soft “discourse” and hard infrastructure that so encircles western power centres that the dominance of the party at home and abroad becomes unchallengeable.
China, we know, has very different definitions of terrorism, human rights, security and even multilateralism to those accepted internationally. The book spells them out and shows how intent the party is on winning international acceptance for them as vital buttresses to its power. Acts of terrorism include not eating pork or speaking out against one-party “democracy”, as the Uighurs and denizens of Hong Kong are learning. Human rights should be understood as the people’s collective right for Chinese-style economic and social development. Multilateralism means states acting in harmony with China and its view that economic development is the alpha and omega of all international purpose – the vision set out in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The BRI is well known as President Xi’s signature policy, through which China partners with governments to build and enhance ports and the wider transport infrastructure across Asia and Africa. I knew the way the BRI is characterised as representing a “community of common destiny for humankind” is nothing more than a front for China’s geopolitical aims, but I had not realised the stunning scope and reach of it. The BRI is the centrepiece of China’s efforts to reorient the world around the interest of the Chinese Communist party. It is breathtaking in its audacity.
Signatories to the BRI – most small states in Asia and Africa and even within the EU Italy and Greece – get access to Chinese grants and loans for developing their infrastructure. The overt quid pro quo is that Chinese civil and military traffic are prioritised in ports and airports, or as People’s Liberation Army Navy sources put it, within the BRI they “meticulously select locations, deploy discreetly, prioritise cooperation and slowly infiltrate”. But the BRI accreditation process also requires signatories to accept “China’s benevolence” – “harmonious” globalisation that accepts China’s definitions of terrorism, security, human rights and multilateralism. Any signatory had better not recognise Taiwan – or object to events in Hong Kong. As party insiders confirm, the BRI is aimed at delivering the party’s geo-strategic dominance.
Integral to the BRI’s work is the party’s now huge and sophisticated United Front Work Department – Mao Zedong described it one of the party’s three “magic weapons”. Essentially it coordinates the party’s “scientific” efforts to win “friends” – in ethnic groups, foreign political parties, western thinktanks, overseas Chinese communities, private companies, non-Chinese nationals sitting on the advisory boards of Chinese companies like Huawei. Its methods range from organising sympathetic conferences and writing cheques to occasionally organising the clandestine seduction of foreign dignitaries to steal their secrets and the hacking of foreign computer systems.
Subverting the Hong Kong treaties and breaking international law have triggered the party’s first major reverses since Tiananmen Square in 1989
Under President Xi the BRI and United Front have become the twin battering rams to project Chinese power. As Hamilton and Ohlberg say, the pretence that party and state are two different spheres has been dropped under Xi. China and the Chinese Communist party are coterminous – and every enterprise in China, state-owned or private, is surveilled by a Communist party committee.
All western states have until the last few months chosen to look the other way. After all the Chinese economy is now the world’s second biggest – and its huge investment in tech is conferring leadership in AI and 5G. The consensus has been that you have to engage with it. Britain has been no slouch. Recall George Osborne and Boris Johnson’s visit to China in 2013, innocently opening the door to the party’s control of part of our new nuclear industry – or David Cameron enjoying a beer with Xi in a Buckinghamshire pub heralding a “new golden era” in Anglo-Chinese relations. The party looks particularly kindly on Britain’s 48 Group Club, founded in 1954 to promote Anglo-Chinese trade, whose members include businessmen such as Tom Glocer, former chief executive of Reuters, along with ex-politicians Tony Blair, Michael Heseltine and Peter Mandelson. But its efforts don’t stop there. Academics, former ambassadors and even journalists like Martin Jacques, author of When China Rules the World, advocate of China’s view of globalisation and critic of Hong Kong protesters, are all cited as good examples of how the party indulges its friends with privileged access. There are parallel efforts across the EU and in the US.
But Xi and the party’s ambitions have begun to be rumbled and challenged – a development that this book underpins. Subverting the Hong Kong treaties and breaking international law to suppress its millions of protesters under an extension of Chinese law, the suppression of the Uighurs and the growing trade aggression of the Trump administration, particularly on Huawei, have triggered the party’s first major reverses since Tiananmen Square in 1989. Boris Johnson may say he won’t be pushed into becoming a kneejerk sinophobe, but Huawei is to be excluded from Britain’s 5G network by 2027. Yet seven years ago, playing to the Europhobe gallery, he set out to charm China as an alternative to the EU. How long will his determination to confront China, post-Brexit, last? This book’s convincing message is plain. Don’t be gulled by soft talk of global harmony, or the prospect of access to the world’s second-biggest market. The Chinese Communist party aims to construct a world in which Enlightenment values are subordinate to its own. The BRI and United Front are subduing criticism and reaction even as I write. Everyone must stay on their guard.
Hidden Hand by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg is published by Oneworld (£20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p over £15
This article was amended on 12 August 2020. An earlier version said that the pub at which David Cameron and Xi Jinping had a drink was in the Cotswolds; it was in fact in the Buckinghamshire village of Cadsden, which is in the Chilterns.
No comments:
Post a Comment