Read on Twitter
1. I’m of the view you should read books that challenge yr views so I read Hidden Hand by @CliveCHamilton & @MareikeOhlberg. What I found interesting was many of the suggested actions to respond to CCP interference & influence aren’t that diff to what I’ve suggested in the past
2. For example, in a piece written for @curtin_rc last yr about the Australian Left & #China, I flagged better public funding of unis, campaign finance reform & public funding of Chinese language media as policy options. All of which were suggested by the authors in the Afterword
3. What it suggests is that there may be room for a fair bit of agreement on policy solutions even if there is disagreement about the extent of the problem & that some contributors to the #Auschina debate are more interested in whipping up rancour than addressing the problems
4. Support for the suggestions however may not cross the unorthodox Left-Right ideological alliances that have developed over CCP interference & influence as a fair chunk of the libertarian & conservative Right would be unlikely to support those proposed policy solutions
5. So the question becomes whether those engaged in this debate want to get stuff done & some policy consensus w/ those they disagree w/ on some aspects by toning down the personal nature of this debate or prefer to keep ratcheting things up but not get policy solutions achieved
