Submission into Inquiry into the ’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill 2020 and Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2020

Hong Kong Political Alliance (HKAPA) is formed by Australians from various Australian political backgrounds. We advocate for various views of the Hong Kong community in our national interest.

We submit that it is in Australia’s best interest to pass this piece of legislation to address the risk of foreign governments to undermine our national sovereignty.

As Hong Kong Australians, we along with the rest of the world have witnessed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) disregards its commitments laid out within the Sino-British Joint Declaration to adhere to the principle of “One Country, Two systems”. This year we witnessed how the National Security Law was forced through resulting in a further deterioration of civil liberties and democratic rights in Hong Kong. This is a warning sign to Australia and the rest of the world to exercise caution when entering into agreements at any level with the CCP.

We believe this legislation is key to ensure deals such as the Belt and Road in exposes our nation to unnecessary risks. This legislation is crucial to address the risks exposed by Belt-and-Road, Confucius Institutes and initiatives such as the Thousand Talents Program which have all been put under the media spotlight.

Of particular concern in regards to Victoria’s signed agreement Belt and Road:

● Cooperation in innovation ● The CCPs strategy to ‘rob-replicate-replace’

Cooperation in Innovation

The Belt and Road Initiative has received much analysis. We would like to highlight how the promise is for “jobs” and written under the guise of ‘co-operation’. There is focus on infrastructure projects, but also on innovation. In particular, the agreement specifies cooperation in ‘innovation with the shared objective of applying both sides' world class complementary research and innovation capabilities and explore industrial cooperation in areas of high-end manufacturing, biotechnology, agriculture technology. etc, and promote ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ technological innovation cooperation and incubator cooperation by means of market.’

China’s rob-replicate-replace policy

The US based CSIS think tank published an article on Countering Chinese Espionage. (https://www.csis.org/blogs/technology-policy-blog/notes-csis-virtual-event-countering-chinese-e ​ spionage) Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers talks about China’s ​ ‘rob-replicate-replace’ policy. ● Steal IP, replicate the product or service in China, replace the US company on the Chinese market, then enter the global market ● Thousand Talents Program are another way that the Chinese steal IP. ● Recent indictments have highlighted China’s attempts to steal IP pertaining to a coronavirus vaccine ● Chinese have long been interested in biomedical research

Other media coverage has stated how the US now heavily relies on pharmaceuticals now all manufactured in China.

There should be little doubt that cooperation in the areas of innovation and especially biotechnology would put our Australian Industries at risk. It is crucial this legislation protects our innovation industries from deals with foreign governments seeking to undermine Australia’s sovereignty through making deals with subnational governments under the guise of ‘cooperation’ and ‘jobs’ in the short term.