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GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation

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Seeds of Liberty: Remembering the Mayflower Compact

The year 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World. It’s also the quadricentennial of what came to be called the Mayflower Compact. Aware that they had landed far north of their intended destination of Virginia and were therefore under the jurisdiction of no government, the Pilgrims feared that their new colony might disintegrate without government of some sort. Moreover, not all of those who arrived with them shared their religious beliefs, which they suspected might also lead to disharmony. And so, while still aboard the Mayflower, the leaders of this group drafted and signed a short compact, a covenant establishing a way to “enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall…

GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation

Grassroots activist group GetUp has filed a petition for the prime minister to denounce Liberal Senator Eric Abetz for asking three Chinese Australians whether they were willing to condemn the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The petition has allegedly garnered over 25,000 signatures and was delivered to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s official residence Kirribilli House last week by representatives from GetUp, the Asian Australian Alliance, and Per Capita.

The latter two organisations also sent a joint letter to Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge calling for Senator Abetz to apologise for his questions.

The Australian Values Alliance, a pro-democracy group comprised of Chinese Australians (many who have suffered at the hands of the CCP) has hit back, sending an open letter to the prime minister, criticising the campaign against Abetz as “unfounded” and exploiting the “racism blame card.”

GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation Dr. Feng Chongyi and Dr. Paul Monk at a panel discussion hosted by the Australian Values Alliance on China’s influence in Australia, in City Tattersalls Club in Sydney, Australia on Dec. 10, 2018. (NTD/Screenshot)

“We remain deeply concerned and hope that the Australian Government be alerted about the danger when racism is being weaponised in the political arena,” the letter stated.

“This is a common tactic of the CCP, which we have observed in recent years since the Australian Government has taken important steps to protect our freedoms,” it continued.

GetUp’s Senior Campaigner Tessa Pang criticised senior Liberal Party members, including the prime minister, for not speaking out against Senator Abetz claiming it “paints a chilling picture of a Government content to foster prejudice against people based on the colour of their skin.”

GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation Tessa Pang, Senior Campaigner at GetUp; Osmond Chiu, Research Fellow at Per Capita; Adri Lozano, NSW Convener at the Asian Australian Alliance; and Thomson Ch’ng, NSW Convener at the Asian Australian Alliance at Kirribilli House on Nov. 12, 2020 (Supplied)

GetUp co-founder Amanda Tattersall is also credited with importing Saul Alinsky-style “community organising” into Australia.

Alinsky, who authored Rules for Radicals, gained notoriety for teaching protestors to exploit any means possible to attain their goals.

In 1964, Alinsky threatened to organise 2,500 activists to occupy the bathrooms of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, bringing the airport’s operations to a halt. The threat forced the authorities into negotiations.

Despite not identifying as a Marxist, Alinsky still advocated strongly for class warfare.

How It All Started?

Per Capita’s Osmond Chiu was one of three Chinese Australians, along with Yun Jiang and Wesa Chau, who fronted a Senate committee in October to discuss issues surrounding Australia’s multicultural communities.

They spoke to the inquiry about systemic racism, and of extensive intimidation against the Chinese diaspora by the CCP.

Senator Abetz asked the three individuals whether they were willing to condemn the CCP.

The three offered broad statements of support for human rights and disagreed with the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses. But all refrained from directly condemning the CCP itself.

Following the hearing, the three mischaracterised Senator Abetz’s question as a “loyalty test” in subsequent op-eds and commentary, which also became the prevailing narrative promoted by certain media outlets in Australia.

Chiu claimed in an op-ed published in the Sydney Morning Herald, that due to his ethnicity, the senator believed there was a “likelihood of divided allegiances.”

Chiu was a former secretary of the Australian Fabians Society, which has produced Labor politicians Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, and Tanya Plibersek (who signed the open letter sent to the Acting Immigration Minister).

GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation Bill Shorten (C), raises his hands with Tanya Plibersek (L) and Chris Bowen (R) at an election event in Sydney on June 19, 2016.
(William West/AFP via Getty Images)

The Fabian Society, first started in 1884, is an organisation that advocates for a gradual transition to a socialist society. Using a strategy of “permeation” to infiltrate cornerstone groups in a society like welfare organisations, multicultural associations, churches, and political parties (both conservative and radical) Fabians then use their position to push for a Marxist-socialist agenda from within, according to The Epoch Times’ Specter of Communism.

“We put our proposals, one by one, as persuasively as possible, before all who would listen to them … This we called ‘permeation’ and it was an important discovery,” according to Sidney Webb (1859 – 1947), an early British Fabian who co-founded the London School of Economics.

Following outcry over the hearing, Senator Abetz responded saying: “At no point did I question the loyalty of anyone. I did not even mention the word ‘loyalty.’ Yet Mr Chiu’s twisted, and distorted narrative is blatantly false.”

“Unfortunately, some now have parroted this false narrative without checking the record,” he said in a statement.

GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz (Supplied)

The Chinese ambassador in Canberra also joined the fray claiming Abetz’s comments had “the smack of Goebbel’s tricks,” commenting in reference to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda czar.

Despite the false media narrative and outrage, the Chinese Australian community has stood by Abetz and criticised the three witnesses. One social media user named May, wrote on ABC’s Chinese-language Twitter feed:

“They should be ashamed of their actions! If you don’t want to offend the Communist Party, then don’t participate in politics! Playing race cards at every turn is disgusting,” she said.

Zoe Zhang wrote: “Whenever you ask me, I will answer firmly: Yes, I unconditionally condemn the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, unless they abolish the dictatorship and move towards democracy, freedom and the rule of law.”

Focus News: GetUp, Activist Groups Distort Senator’s Tough Stance on CCP as Racism, Call for Condemnation

Five Eyes: China Running a ‘Concerted Campaign’ to Silence Critics in Hong Kong

The allied Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, as well as the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) actions in Hong Kong in a rare joint statement published Thursday. The Five Eyes foreign representatives declared that Beijing was running a “concerted campaign to silence all critical voices” in Hong Kong and that the CCP had breached the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration for the third time when it disqualified elected legislators in Hong Kong last week. The communist regime had previously breached the Joint Declaration, the allies said, with the imposition of the national security law and its postponement of the Legislative Council elections in September.  “China’s action is a clear breach of its international obligations,” the statement said. “The…