Australia riles China with new laws on foreign interference

AUSTRALIA’S parliament passed national security legislation yesterday that bans covert foreign interference in domestic politics and makes industrial espionage for a foreign power a crime. However, there are concerns the move has offended China, the nation’s most important trading partner.

The two bills covering foreign interference, espionage and influence transparency have been criticised in some quarters as criminalising dissent. The senate made them law with the support of the centre-left Labor Party.

The conservative government says the legislation, first proposed in December, is the major cause of a rift in diplomatic relations with China. But supporters maintain it is not aimed at any particular country.

Foreign interference in the latest US and French presidential elections plus the Brexit referendum have been cited as justifications for the reforms.

Individuals lobbying for foreign governments will have to be listed on a public register in a step towards making foreign influence on Australian politics more transparent.

Christian Porter, the country’s attorney general, said national security has been substantially enhanced by the new protections against agents who could undermine Australia’s democratic institutions and processes.

“We have heard time and time again from our most senior national security leaders that we live in a time of unprecedented foreign intelligence activity against Australia, with more foreign agents, from more foreign powers, using more tradecraft to engage in espionage and foreign interference than at any time since the Cold War,” Mr Porter said in a statement.

The new crimes include stealing trade secrets on behalf of foreign governments, which is punishable by 15 years in prison.

Australian media has reported that the bills were the result of a classified government report commissioned by Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, in 2016. It found that the Chinese Communist Party had tried to influence Australian policy, compromise political parties and gain access to all levels of government for a decade.

China protested Mr Turnbull’s announcement of the foreign interference ban. The Chinese foreign ministry said in December that the prime minister’s remarks had poisoned the atmosphere between the two countries.