Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Australia has ratcheted up its anti-China rhetoric and fanned anti-China sentiment in the country, aided by anti-China politicians and a few media personnel who colluded with US political forces or cooked up fake news to smear and contain China to poison China-Australia ties and push relations to a new low.

Their typical tactic includes political forces in the US or Australia financing anti-China think tank to issue reports attacking China, media hyping the reports to manipulate public opinion and the government rolling out policies targeting China, observers said.  

Australian journalist Sharri Markson from The Daily Telegraph is a typical example from the media circle. 

In May, Markson revealed a Five Eyes intelligence report, claiming that the novel coronavirus may have come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

However, another Australian media The Age soon smacked Sharri's face by pointing out that the so-called exclusive report was suspected of being provided by the US Embassy in Australia. 

The Sydney Morning Herald also indicated in an article that tabloid The Daily Telegraph disregarded the basic principle of facts for news, and instead of playing a role in supervision of power, but it had colluded with politicians and served as a tool for the anti-China parties in the US.   

Again, on August 24 Sharri released a series of reports in The Australian regarding so-called "China's great science swindle," claiming that, to enhance military capacity, the Chinese government recruited Australian scientists and required the scientists' research achievements be patented in China. She also warned Australian colleges of the risk of cooperating with China, and called for Australian government to launch investigations.   

However, a large amount of the material the report quotes is from a report by the anti-China think tank The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which always spreads rumors about China, and has received $145,600 in funding from the US State Department, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. 

It's not difficult to see how such a report evolves: American and Australia political forces provided funding, anti-China think tank issues a report, media hypes and manipulates public opinion, and finally the government issues policies against China.     

What's more ridiculous is that Sharri made another report recently claiming that some places in Southwest China's Guizhou Province installed facial recognition system to monitor local ethnic minorities.  

Facial recognition systems are not uncommon in China and have been used in community safety protection systems and health QR code systems to increase safety and efficiency of society. The Chinese government has made real efforts to protect citizens' privacy and related regulations have been clearly made in the General Principles of Civil Law and the cybersecurity law.

Sharri's assertions are totally and utterly indefensible and are undoubtedly, another "feed" from the network security staff of the US State Department, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. 

Sharri worked "faithfully" to help the US government sell lies on China. But according to some Australian media outlets, Sharri, a so-called veteran journalist born in 1984, knows nothing about China. Her investigations are either based on rumor, media reports or "feeds" from US officials in Australia. Her reports have neither credibility or a bottom line. 

What's behind her is American and Australian intelligence institutes and anti-China forces. Should media workers be buglers for anti-China forces to meet their personal ends, or pursue mutual understanding and friendship based on facts? It's a question Sharri and others like her should be think about, observers said.    

Global Times