Wariness in dealings with China are not out of place

ANN Wason Moore’s fears about China’s ‘dystopian’ social credit scheme are well founded (GCB, 22/9).

She’s also right to be concerned about the monitoring that already goes on in this country, using everything from freebie FitBits to Facebook profiles.

Not all of this is related to China, of course, although it’s known to be a master of surveillance and, possibly, not just in its own country.

Furthermore, it’s recognised that China can turn nasty to those ‘out of favour’.

It’s sobering to reflect, therefore, that our mayor Tom Tate said, “Our city’s relationship with China is built on trust”. Whose trust? Given what we know about China, why would we trust them?

Tom Tate boasts about “minimising red tape” for China.

He is also delighted that the Chinese Government has included the Songcheng theme park and highrise project in Carrara/Nerang on their ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. Why? It seems ironic that while neither the council nor State Government have approved the project yet, the Chinese Government has given it the ‘green light’ and, it seems, so has Tom.

This does not sit well with local residents who already fear the environmental consequences of large-scale development on fragile floodplain. Songcheng is in the top three biggest landowners on the Gold Coast and may get closer to No.1 if it completes the sale of land in the Norwell Valley.

This huge land ownership only serves to make many Gold Coasters nervous about what say they will have in these developments, who they are dealing with and what happens if China puts pressure on any of those involved in these dealings.

The scary prospect of a ‘Big Brother’ situation is not just confined to China and to have it on our doorstep is uncomfortable in the extreme.

YVETTE DEMPSEY, CARRARA