Photo Above: The act of charity that has seen the Australian regime disgustingly jail 68 year-old Chinese-Australian Di Sanh Duong for two years and nine months. At the height of COVID, Duong donated more than $37,000 to the Royal Melbourne Hospital to help it purchase pandemic response materials. Duong made the 2 June 2020 donation which was collected from his Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in a ceremony involving then immigration minister Alan Tudge.
Photo credit: James Ross/AAP
Free
Di Sanh Duong!
Free the Three Cold War Political Prisoners in Australia!
29 February 2024: Australian citizen of Chinese descent, Di Sanh Duong, today became the first person jailed under Australia’s “Foreign Interference” laws. The Australian regime sentenced 68-year-old Duong to two years and nine months jail for making a charitable donation to a Melbourne public hospital during the height of the pandemic. Yes, you read that right! The act for which Doung has been jailed is the making of a public donation to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a ceremony with then immigration minister, Alan Tudge. The Australian regime and its courts deemed this to be illegal in a largely secret trial. Their allegation boils down to a claim that by giving himself a good name through the donation, Duong was “preparing” to in future advance the interests of the Communist Party of China (CPC) – the party that administers the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). What Duong is really being punished for is the fact that although he is certainly no leftist (Duong was actually a long-time member of the Liberal Party!), the group that he led, the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, has signed (from a Chinese patriotic point of view) public statements showing some sympathy for the PRC. By jailing Di Sanh Duong, Australia’s capitalist regime is seeking to threaten others, especially members of this country’s Chinese community, that they should not express any positive views about the PRC. They are also demonising Duong in order to try and create an anti-communist, anti-China hysteria amongst the population. The Australian ruling class wants to justify to the masses its rabidly enthusiastic participation in Western imperialism’s all-sided political, economic and military campaign to destroy socialistic rule in China.
The charge under which Duong has been jailed is so ridiculous that Duong was not even convicted of “foreign interference”. Instead, he was convicted of “preparing to commit an act of foreign interference”. As we explained in an article titled, “Resist the Cold War Repression” that was written a few months before Duong’s trial late last year:
“Federal prosecutors claim that Duong’s donation to the hospital charity was a means for him to `interfere’ with then immigration minister Tudge – presumably by presenting Duong in a good light to the minister. Yet if that logic is followed consistently, there would literally be tens of thousands of other donors being arrested: for every single person who makes a donation to a charity in a public way is doing it to win themselves credibility with others and gain the influence which that brings. Yet the Australian regime is fine with nearly all others who make public donations to charity. Indeed, when a billionaire tycoon publicly donates to a charity a tiny fraction of the wealth that they have leached from the masses, the regime gushes with praise. But when the leader of a Chinese organisation that is somewhat sympathetic to the PRC makes such a donation, Australia’s regime screams that that this is a sinister act of `foreign interference’ on behalf of the CPC. Such a claim is a crystal clear example of McCarthyism. McCarthyism, the name given to the 1950s anti-communist witch-hunt in the U.S. and Australia, is based on the premise that those who either support communism or are even mildly sympathetic to a socialistic state should be treated with suspicion and denied the rights accorded to others … in this case even the right to publicly donate to a local public hospital!”
Yet even when compared with the hysterical zealotry of the 1950s McCarthyist witch-hunt, today’s lengthy prison sentence handed down to an elderly man – who suffers from glaucoma and cataracts as well as diabetes and high blood pressure – for merely making a public donation to a hospital to aid their pandemic response comes off as especially fanatical. Today’s sentencing judgement by judge Maidment was full of vitriolic denunciations of the Chinese Communist Party and it’s supposedly “pervasive foreign influence program”. Basically the judge has decided that an Australian person, who has even vague links to organisations associated with the Chinese Communist Party, who advocates a political position and happens to take the same stance as the Chinese Communist Party is definitely engaging in “foreign interference” rather than that person happening to share the same belief on an issue as the PRC government that is led by the Chinese Communist Party. Moreover, the Cold War extremist judge’s sentencing judgement practically insists that anyone who has any relations with people who are members of the Chinese Communist Party and who does not declare those associations before making any political advocacy is engaging in “a significant breach of trust” using “covert methodology”. Do Australians who have friends in, or links with, the Liberal or Labor or Greens or One Nation parties here – or say the Republican or Democrat parties in the U.S. – always declare their friendships or connections with those parties every time that they advocate something to a political figure or community organisation?
Despite the sentencing judge’s rantings, the truth is that the Communist Party of China conducts almost no direct interference in Australia’s politics. The foreign state that interferes in Australian political processes the most is the USA. But even U.S. influence operations on Australian politics are today of secondary importance. By far the biggest interferers in Australia’s “democracy” are the wealthy capitalist tycoons and the corporations that they own. These ultra-rich capitalists make very public charity donations to gain a positive reputation in order to influence political decisions according to their agendas – as Di Sanh Duong is alleged to have done – but on a scale far, far bigger and wider than a person like Duong collecting from members of his grassroots community organisation would ever have any hope of doing. This big end of town uses far more direct and potent methods to control political life in this country to an extent that is in great disproportion to their small size. They do so through direct donations to political parties, through the corporate and bosses organisations that they fund, through the corporations that they own being able to entice politicians and high-ranking bureaucrats with the prospects of future lucrative careers in their companies, through using their control of the economy to effectively hold government and other state institutions to ransom; and through the lobbyists that they hire, the media that they own and the NGOs and “independent” think tanks that they establish (like the Lowy Institute, the Institute for Public Affairs and the Australia Institute). Many of these influence operations involve truly “covert methodology” with their media and think tanks making the completely false, lying claim that they are “independent”, unbiased publishers of news and opinion. And while some of their direct political donations are reported – albeit usually many months after they first make them thus diminishing the impact of the disclosure – much of it is concealed through paying big payments to attend super-expensive fundraising dinners or through being funnelled through third parties. Yet none of these corporate bigwigs and their henchmen are even threatened with imprisonment for engaging in such interference in this country’s political system! That is of little surprise – the ruling capitalist class always intended Australia’s “democracy” to be a “democracy” that is controlled exclusively by their class, making sure that their so-called “democratic” system was organised and administered in such a way that would be most conducive for the political interference of the rich in it to continue unabated and largely unhindered.
Resist the Cold War Repression!
Di Sanh Duong’s sentencing judge has slapped a very severe jail term on a person who has had no prior convictions for a supposed “offence” that involved no violence, had no victim and was not even alleged to have done any damage unless you believe that helping hospitals treat COVID is damaging! By contrast, last ANZAC Day when a Brisbane man shouting racist abuse against Chinese people assaulted several Asian-Australians fishing on a pier, he was not only not given a jail term but he was not even given a criminal conviction. He was, instead, merely given a small civil fine. This is despite the fact that his assault using a metal object as a weapon could have been fatal had he succeeded in knocking one of the victims into the water after debilitating them through a blow with his weapon. That slap on the wrist to a violent anti-Chinese racist when contrasted with Duong’s outrageously heavy sentence shows the extreme anti-communist and racist bias of Australia’s legal system and judiciary.
Sunny Duong, as he is affectionately known, has today become Australia’s third Cold War political prisoner. Of the other two current political prisoners, one is pilot Daniel Duggan who has been imprisoned for the last sixteen months under harsh conditions for merely training Chinese pilots to fly more than ten years ago! The Australian regime is seeking to extradite Duggan to the U.S. to face charges as nothing he did is illegal by Australian laws. Meanwhile, Alexander Csergo has been jailed for the last eleven months accused of violating Australia’s “foreign interference” laws for merely looking up open source politics and defence affairs articles on the internet and passing their contents over to a Chinese think tank!
The anti-China hysteria surrounding all this Cold War repression – especially the persecution of ethnic Chinese Di Sanh Duong – will only further inflame anti-Chinese racism in Australia. It is a call out to all the filthy racists. It will lead to more people of Chinese appearance being abused in public transport and shopping centres, being bullied at school and being physically attacked on Australia’s streets. Moreover, these Cold War prosecutions have helped produce such a “national security” obsession that it is being used to intensify the repression of those targeted for matters not directly related to the Cold War. Thus, there is no doubt that the repressive political atmosphere created by the new McCarthyist witch-hunt has contributed to the prosecution of whistle blower, David McBride. McBride was convicted last November of “unlawfully disclosing Commonwealth documents” after he gave to the media information detailing the horrific and very widespread war crimes that were being committed by the Australian regime’s forces during their participation in the NATO occupation of Afghanistan. Now, he too faces imprisonment. The entire Left and all genuine defenders of democratic rights in Australia must demand: Drop the Charges against David McBride! Free Di Sanh Duong now! Free Daniel Duggan and Alexander Csergo! Scrap Australia’s draconian “Foreign Interference” laws! Down with the new McCarthyist witch-hunt!
As part of their Cold War drive to destroy socialistic rule in China, the Australian and other imperialist ruling classes seek to attack the PRC over “human rights”. However, the truth is that unlike Australia’s capitalist regime the PRC does not jail people for donating to public hospitals! We should stress that the imprisonment of Di Sanh Duong here has very little in common with the former imprisonment of Australian citizen, Cheng Lei, in China and the current jailing of another Chinese-Australian in China, Yang Hengjun. Cheng Lei was jailed for illegally supplying state secrets overseas – a form of spying. Notably, Cheng Lei confessed to the crimes – although she has tried to walk back and obscure her confession after returning to Australia after serving her sentence. For his part, Yang Hengjun was found guilty of espionage. It is important to understand that not only were Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun convicted of offences that would be considered very serious in any country, from the point of view of the interests of the working class of Australia and the whole world their actions truly are crimes. For they weaken and undermine a workers state – a workers state in the form of socialistic China. Their actions are as abusive towards the working class masses as a person who crosses a picket line to scab on a strike but with potentially even more damaging consequences. Unlike the Cold War political prisoners that Australia has imprisoned here, Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun were not jailed for merely donating to a public hospital or teaching people (apparently civilian pilots) how to fly planes or passing on the results of Google searches!
Today, the claims of the Australian and other Western capitalist rulers that they stand for “human rights” are being thoroughly exposed by their active support for Israel’s heinous war on the Palestinian people. Through hosting and jointly operating the joint U.S.-Australia spy base at the Northern Territory’s Pine Gap – which pinpoints a large number of Israel’s air and artillery strikes on Gaza – and through joining the U.S.-led Red Sea operation against Yemeni actions in support of Gaza, the Labor Party-administered Australian regime is directly participating in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. This shows that whether administered by the right-wing Liberal-Nationals, the social democratic ALP or any other party, Australia’s capitalist-serving state will use the cruellest means possible to protect the interests of this country’s ruling class – that small but powerful class of people that obtain their massive wealth through exploiting the labour of others. And that includes putting people sympathetic to Red China who publicly donate to hospitals in jail!
Today’s imprisonment of Di Sanh Duong underscores the importance of the demonstration that Trotskyist Platform and the Australian Chinese Workers Association conducted in Sydney’s Eastwood last September that called to “RESIST THE COLD WAR WITCH-HUNT!” That action also opposed the marginalisation of Australia’s Chinese community that has accompanied the ruling class’ Cold War drive against socialistic China. During the protest march, we loudly chanted, “Resist, Resist, the Cold War Witch-hunt!” and “Di Sanh Duong, Drop His Charges Now!” We now need to urgently build on that action and grow and strengthen the movement. We need to build a mass united-front movement of anti-Cold War leftists, pro-PRC members of the Chinese community and the most advanced sections of the workers movement to demand: Free Di Sanh Duong! Free Australia’s three Cold War political prisoners! Scrap Australia’s draconian “Foreign Interference” laws! Down with anti-Chinese racism! Down with the Western capitalist ruling classes’ Cold War offensive against socialistic China that is the root cause of this repression!