8chan/8kun QResearch AUSTRALIA Posts (1)
#16128099 at 2022-04-22 12:58:57 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition
>>16047451
>>16104792
It was a job in the idyllic South Pacific many would envy. But it turns out I was only helping China fool Australia about its REAL intentions in the Solomon Islands. Sorry about that, writes LEVI PARSONS
LEVI PARSONS - 21 April 2022
As experts, diplomats and political commentators examine how Australia has made 'the worst foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since World War II', I can't help but feel a sense of guilt.
I was in Honiara for four days in October 2019 when I believe the controversial security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands was being set in motion.
I was living in Sydney while working as an English language news editor for Chinese state media giant Xinhua. The job saw me occasionally visiting the South Pacific to churn out BeiJing-friendly stories about how jumping into bed with China was a 'win-win'.
But on this particular trip, one of the people I was travelling with was later accused of being a Chinese spy after his Sydney home was raided by ASIO on June 26, 2020. Yang Jingzhong, the former Sydney bureau chief, has since fled the country.
The trip came on the heels of Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's decision one month earlier to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognise BeiJing under the One China Policy.
BeiJing handed over about $730million to the Solomon Islands government after the diplomatic switch was made.
I did not receive a briefing about the trip and was not given any information about what stories I'd be working on there - something not that unusual when working for China's state-run media.
When our news crew arrived on the island of Guadalcanal we checked into a hotel beside the Honiara Yacht Club and were told by Mr Yang to wait as he mysteriously ventured off with a small group of humourless Chinese men linked to a state-owned construction firm based in the country.
I sat in the hotel for a day and a half with my colleagues drinking Sol Brew beer and ordering fried calamari while pitching stories by text and phone calls to Mr Yang, only to be told to stay put.
Eventually we all went to the office of a local politician (not named for legal reasons) whose corruption was an open secret. I was vaguely told he had a pivotal role in securing China's 75-year lease of the island of Tulagi which was later blocked by the Solomon Islands' Attorney General for being 'unconstitutional'.
We set up lights and cameras for an interview and then I scribbled down some questions for Mr Yang - barely enough to justify my title as producer of the segment.
Then it was back to the hotel where I grew increasingly frustrated with sitting around doing nothing apart from the occasional stroll to the local market to chew betel nuts.
I was a journalist in a foreign country. It was a great career opportunity so I wanted to get out and talk to people. I wanted bylines. I wanted to work.
I made my feelings clear to Mr Yang and we had several heated arguments about the situation before he finally sent us out to what I would describe as 'mock interviews'.
One was with the owner of a local Chinese restaurant and the other was a landowner who allowed a Chinese firm to build a small bridge on his property. They were not even remotely newsworthy and I don't think either of the stories were published or went to air.
On the flight back to Brisbane I made the decision to resign and I changed jobs three months later.
Up until the draft version of the China-Solomon Islands security deal was leaked in March, I had always struggled to understand why the BeiJing-backed news outlet was willing to pay a team of reporters and their camera crew to fly overseas and not publish any stories.
I can't say for sure, but it seems obvious now that we were the useful idiots in the early stages of a clandestine Chinese plot to set up a military base in the Solomon Islands.
The news team I was part of helped to put a legitimate fa?ade on what was likely a four-day trip of bribery, espionage and backroom deal-making that will see Australia exposed to a hostile authoritarian power for decades to come.
Sorry about that.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10737783/How-helped-China-fool-Australia-Solomon-Islands-security-deal-writes-LEVI-PARSONS.html