Xi Jinping
Chinese President Xi Jinping

As the government and News Corp go on the attack against Anthony Albanese for being “soft on China”, Crikey can reveal a sinister Chinese plot that you won’t learn about from the Murdoch press — at least, not unless you go back a few years and read their old copy from 2015.

That’s because senior Liberal party figures worked with News Corp to bring Australia under the influence of the Xi Jinping regime, in a staggering plot that would have seen Chinese enterprises purchase major Australian companies and Chinese workers displace Australians in workplaces across the country, and would have brought Australia into the “orbit” of one of the world’s most brutal, aggressive regimes — all without ordinary Aussies being given a say.

China was even able to secure control of a strategic Darwin port as part of the Liberal-News Corp plot, leaving Australian and US military movements susceptible to Chinese monitoring to this very day.

The primary architect of the plot was former prime minister Tony Abbott, who posed as a hardline anti-communist while engaging in extensive secret negotiations with the Xi Jinping regime to extend Chinese economic intervention in Australia. It was dubbed the “China–Australia Free Trade Agreement” (ChAFTA), and information about the negotiations was withheld from the public until 2015, when Abbott, without consultation with Parliament or the community, signed Australia to a deal allowing Chinese investment and labour into Australia unchecked.

Abbott also committed Australia to an “investor-state dispute settlement” process, by which Chinese government-controlled businesses could use secretive private arbitration panels to force future Australian governments to compensate them for changes in policy — an astonishing breach of sovereignty that could see companies controlled by Xi suing Australia to reverse our policies.

However, Abbott’s supplication of Xi wasn’t limited to the economic sphere. In an extraordinary security breach, in late 2014, Abbott allowed the Chinese dictator himself into Parliament in Canberra, giving his team of spies extensive access to Australia’s very centre of government. It was well known years before the incident that Chinese government agents were expert at exploiting even limited access to systems in order to hack them.

Labor attempts to raise the alarm about Abbott’s secret deal with China were met with cries of “Sinophobia” and “racism”, led by Abbott himself, who accused Labor of “economic sabotage” for opposing a deal that would have enabled a dramatic extension of Chinese control of the Aussie economy. Abbott and his colleagues also claimed Labor would damage the relationship with China by questioning the secret deal. Our relationship with Beijing has gone from strength to strength since that time.

However, the plot with Xi wasn’t limited to Abbott and a coterie of senior Coalition figures. Australia’s dominant media company, News Corp, was involved.

In coordination with the government, News Corp attacked Labor for failing to fall into line with the deal. The most senior News Corp commentator, Paul Kelly, called for the deal to be supported and lauded Xi being allowed into Parliament. On November 17, 2014, Kelly spelled out Australia’s horrific fate when he boasted that the deal was “going to pull Australia far closer into China’s orbit in coming years”.

Another News Corp figure, Greg Sheridan, attacked Labor for its “absolutely disgraceful” concerns about the so-called ChAFTA.

The remarks of both men were made before legislation passed by the Turnbull government requiring people to register as agents of foreign influence.

The plot validates widely expressed concerns about the Chinese government’s capacity and willingness to interfere in Australian politics. While there have been suggestions the Chinese government may have attempted to influence the preselection of unwitting candidates on the Labor side, it’s now clear that Chinese influence has reached the very top of the Liberal Party and the most senior figures in the biggest media company in the land.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) declined to confirm whether any of the figures involved in the plot have been investigated or monitored in the aftermath.