Thought for the Day: Anti-China rhetoric

8
Cartoon by Ryan Fletcher.

Whenever I have thought of Sam Dastyari this week, I have smiled. It is nice to take a scalp back. He should have been turfed out long ago, but as with most leftist zombies, one must always apply the double-tap rule.

It also brought a smile to my face that for a couple of days, whenever I googled Dirty Dastyari’s name, page 1 of the Google search would be filled with articles warning against anti-China rhetoric.

I read a few of these. My favourite one, which I cannot seem to source, featured the concerns of a former “Chinese-Australian” MP, whatever her name was. She warned that “anti-China rhetoric” by some in the Liberal Party who were capitalising on the Shanghai Sam fiasco risked upsetting the large minority of “Chinese-Australians” in the upcoming bi-election in Bennelong.

This caused me to ponder a contradiction in the narrative we are told regarding multiculturalism and civic nationalism: I thought people who migrated to Australia brought with them enriching remnants of their culture, but were to be loyal to their new home. For example, we could enjoy the exotic way they chose to wrap dough around bread, while being assured that when Australia played their country of origin in the football, they would back the Socceroos.

Surely “Chinese-Australians” would be just as concerned as real Australians about the interference of the Chinese government in Australia’s internal affairs. I understand that the Chinese government tends to be rather, shall we say, fanatical about keeping outside powers out of its own internal affairs.  That is precisely how this whole saga started.

Makes me wonder if we can expand the scope of that Section 44 audit…