Rupert Murdoch Photo: IC

A survey conducted by the Australia Institute shows that more than 42 percent of Australians believe that China and Australia will go to war sooner or later.

Where are Australians getting this inexplicable unease and fear? Observers and analysts point out that Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born American media tycoon, has played a major role in this, acting as a sugar daddy behind the global anti-China opinion front.

Murdoch's media empire spans the globe. Through his company, News Corp, he owns a large amount of big name media brands such as The Wall Street Journal, The Sun, The Australian and Fox News.

At the moment, Murdoch and his News Corp seem to be weaving a web of anti-China opinion around the world, willfully using their media power as a political weapon. Meanwhile, widespread anger is brewing with the unrest caused by the unethical "reports" of his media legions.

Agitator of negative feelings towards China

It is no longer news that China-Australia relations are now frozen. But few people probably know that this situation might have been fueled by the media outlets owned by Murdoch's News Corp.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, some Australians helped the Chinese Embassy collect medical supplies to support Chinese people in the fight against the pandemic. Unfortunately, these actions were not reported by Australian mainstream media, which instead amplified the rumors that Chinese overseas companies were hoarding medical supplies and causing shortages in the Australian market. 

When the epidemic began to rage in Australia, local media turned a blind eye to the fact that Chinese organizations had assisted a number of Australian companies in sourcing epidemic prevention supplies in China but continued to smear China. These claims were ultimately proven to be completely nonsense but they did serious damage to China's image in the eyes of the Australian public.

Observers pointed out that such a consistent negative environment in the public opinion against China is inseparable from News Corp which has the absolute monopoly of the Australian press. 

Murdoch controls 70 percent of Australia's print media, notably The Australian, the national daily newspaper with the largest circulation. He also owns Sky News Australia and the most popular website in the country, Australian News.Net. 

The Global Times found that it is difficult to see much objective reporting on China in these Australian media outlets under News Corp, who keep hyping the "China threat theory" and repeatedly spin lies on topics like Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and 5G technology.

In addition to these clichés, they have also created rumors like Chinese "interference" in Australian politics, news reporting, and academic freedom. Fueled by these fake news, some Australians have even come to the absurd realization that anyone in Australia who is not hostile to Beijing is likely to be suspected of being a spy.

The Global Times also learned that the conspiracy theory that "the novel coronavirus disease came from Wuhan Institute of Virology" was first created and spread by News Corp's media.

Australian "celebrity journalist" Sharri Markson has been publishing "exclusives" in News Corp's The Daily Telegraph and The Australian since May last year with a clear "formula" for fabricating anti-China rumors: first, find or create a piece of information out of nothing; second, package it into "top-secret intelligence documents" to create a sense of mystery and credibility; and third, interpret and distort it wildly to slander China.

Even if these stories turn out to be unfounded, after they are amplified by similar news agencies, the slander against China still leaves a bad image.

Murdoch's chain of production of conspiracy theories about China in Australia has also been replicated by News Corp in the UK and the US.

For example, Fox News, an American multinational cable news television channel, has made several statements against intellectual property such as "China's theft of US intellectual property" and "compensation from China for the COVID-19 outbreak," which have manipulated public opinion against China.

Loss in the Chinese market

Murdoch was born in 1931 in Australia. His father, Keith Murdoch, also worked in the newspaper industry but never built a media empire. He left to his son the Sunday Mail and The News, both in Adelaide, which had a low circulation back then. But what Murdoch learned from his father is how to use the power of media as political influence.

Murdoch later travelled to London and since then, British politics has never been quiet. Murdoch was instrumental in both the election of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and, in more recent years, Brexit.

In the US, Fox News has always been the opinion ground of the right-wing conservatives who have continuously tried to make waves in American society.

In May 2020, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wrote an article on the Guardian titled "The Murdoch media's China coronavirus conspiracy has one aim: get Trump re-elected." He pointed out that what Murdoch was doing was influencing US presidential politics.

In an interview with Esquire in 2008, Murdoch said that he loved competition and all he wanted is to win.

Therefore, journalism ethnics were never an option in Murdoch's business philosophy. 

In order to win, his journalists will go to any lengths, even fabricating stories. In 2011, Britain's News of the World had to close after it was involved in a scandal about the hacking of government officials to obtain news.

Several analysts pointed out that Murdoch is a media baron with no moral bottom line. 

Murdoch once harbored the ambition of entering the Chinese market. In 1993, he purchased Star Media and actively participated in the establishment of Phoenix TV. In 1999, he married Deng Wendi as his third wife who also became News Corp's "main helper" to enter China.

However, after failing to get the approval from China's broadcast regulator in 2005, News Corp acquired the evening time slot from Qinghai Satellite TV. It changed the platform logo to bypass supervision and aired some programs from Star TV in the mainland which were later suspended for passing the red line.

Since then, News Corp's business in the mainland has been gradually hampered. It decided to sell its main assets in China in August 2010. At that point, the development center of Murdoch's media group in Asia shifted from China to India.

Come for profit, go for loss. After that, Murdoch's media immediately took a sharp turn towards China.

The eventual backfire

The West, which allowed the expansion of Murdoch's media power, has seen him continue to grow and that has backfired.

In Australia, Murdoch holds enormous political influence.

He has been accused of involvement in several leadership changes in Australia. Australian former prime ministers like Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have cited News Corp and its huge influence as a reason for their downfall. Moreover, the few Australian media outlets that News Corp does not own have described Turnbull's fall as a "coup" led by Murdoch.

As a result, Rudd repeatedly criticized Murdoch by calling him "an arrogant cancer on democracy" and launched a petition calling for a royal commission into News Corp's dominance of Australian media, arguing that Rupert Murdoch's media companies employ tactics that "chill free speech and undermine public debate," the Guardian reported.

In Britain, Murdoch's tabloid The Sun has long presented readers with a demonized view of the European Union which has been directly linked with the subsequent Brexit deal. British politics has been in turmoil ever since.

In the United States, Fox News controls the real power of the American right-wing media and was a staunch ally of the Trump administration. In 2016, Murdoch briefly assumed the direction of Fox News and helped propel Trump into the White House by sharply reducing the visibility of Trump's opponents during the election campaign.

The "Foxification" has deeply poisoned American society.

A survey in March found that only 12 percent of Fox News viewers believed that climate change was caused by humans, compared with 62 percent of the rest of the United States.

Murdoch and his media groups are bringing about political chaos and social division in many countries like the US, Britain and Australia, and continues to promote a social anti-intellectual tide and the rise of right-wing forces.