China's Ministry of State Security hits back at claims Beijing spying on Australia
China's Ministry of State Security on Friday released a statement via its official WeChat account, appearing to take issue with recent events in Australia, including a major speech by ASIO boss Mike Burgess.
'Australian intelligence agencies advocated the 'serious threat' posed by foreign espionage activities to Australia, and even packaged themselves as innocent 'victims' in groundless accusations of 'Chinese espionage threat',' the Chinese ministry's statement said.
'In recent years, China's state security organs have successively cracked a number of espionage cases against China instigated by Australian intelligence agencies in accordance with the law, effectively safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and development interests.'
The statement comes just a month after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese undertook a six-day state visit to China, as his government seeks to normalise relations with Beijing after several tense years.
The statement also follows a speech by Mr Burgess, Australia's chief spy, on July 31, where he again identified China as being among the top three countries spying on Australia.
Mr Burgess revealed ASIO had disrupted 24 'major espionage and foreign interference' operations in the past three years alone.
'Nation states are spying at unprecedented levels, with unprecedented sophistication,' he said.
'ASIO is seeing more Australians targeted – more aggressively – than ever before.'
While AUKUS and military technology secrets were targets, Australia's intellectual property and cutting edge research was also in the sights of foreign agents.
And earlier this month, the Australian Federal Police charged a Chinese national with reckless foreign interference after she was allegedly tasked by China to spy on a Canberra Buddhist group.
The woman was arrested under the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce and charged with reckless foreign interference. The crime carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.
Mr Burgess said at the time he was proud of the significant contribution ASIO had made on the matter.
'Foreign interference of the kind alleged is an appalling assault on Australian values, freedoms and sovereignty,' Mr Burgess said.
'In this year's annual threat assessment, I called out these types of activities and put perpetrators on notice by stating, 'we are watching, and we have zero tolerance'.
'Anyone who thinks it is acceptable to monitor, intimidate and potentially repatriate members of our diaspora communities should never underestimate our capabilities and resolve.'
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
How China became a green energy superpower
Sam Hawley: In April, China installed more solar power than Australia has throughout history in just that month. China is also now home to half of the world's wind power and half of the world's electric cars. So how has the Communist Party managed to electrify the nation so quickly? Today, climate reporter Jo Lorder on why China is becoming the world's first electro-state. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal Land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal Land in Sydney. Jo, for a long time, if you mentioned Beijing, your mind would just go to pollution. It was one of the most polluted cities in the world, wasn't it? Jo Lauder: Yeah, it was really, really bad. So often there was this really, really thick smog and it was becoming a health crisis, it was becoming a bit of a political crisis. News report: Toxic Beijing is back. Severe air pollution is again being recorded here. It's extremely severe. There are a lot of people coughing and not in good health. Jo Lauder: In 2013, on average, there was just over 101 micrograms of PM2.5 particles. What the World Health Organisation kind of recognises as, like, you know, healthy, it shouldn't exceed five micrograms. So really, really bad. And this happened because this was after years of really heavy industrial emissions and pretty quick industrialisation in China. It really became the world's factory. You know, countries like Australia, we ended up offshoring a lot of our manufacturing. These factories are really, really energy intensive. So there's burning lots of coal to be able to produce all these products to sell to the world. So China was modernising its economy really quickly in this period, having huge economic growth, but pulling people out of poverty. But it's also causing these really, really significant environmental issues in terms of air pollution, environmental degradation and pollution. And it was becoming a really big problem. Sam Hawley: Yeah, so it's developing really, really quickly. And at the same time, greenhouse gas emissions are going through the roof, I presume. Jo Lauder: Yeah. So around this period after this massive industrialisation is where we see China becoming one of the largest and then the largest polluter in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. So in 2006, China overtook the US as the world's biggest emitter. Historically, though, the US is still responsible for more emissions than China, but China makes up now about a third of global emissions. It does have a really big population. So interestingly, per capita, Australia, the US per capita still has higher emissions, but China, it's a really big player. Like it's a third of global emissions. So this is kind of an issue for everybody, not just China. Sam Hawley: All right. Well, the Communist Party, Jo, then came to a point where it really needed and wanted to do something about this pollution crisis it had found itself in. So that's when it tried to turn things around. Just tell me about that. Jo Lauder: Yeah. So about a decade ago, it introduced a plan called Made in China 2025. And so this was a 10-year plan and it was really outlining how China was going to reshape its manufacturing capability. It wanted to stop just making kind of cheap, low-quality stuff to send to the world, focus on more high-end products. And really, they were interested in the ones that are going to address climate change. They could see that this is a huge economic opportunity. The world is going to be wanting these products. They'll be able to sell them for more. And so China began to invest in all the components, all the different parts for renewables, really, especially around wind and solar, electric cars, and then batteries as well, because if you're making the cars, you make the batteries. And so then that's household batteries, energy storage. And so the superpower really put its economic might, its willpower behind renewable technologies. And this is phenomenal because this is really accelerating the end of the fossil fuel era. And it's bringing about what people are calling the age of the electro state. Sam Hawley: Interesting. All right. So just to explain that further, though, this wasn't so much about cutting greenhouse gas emissions for China. It was actually just trying to get rid of this smog, this pollution that was becoming a huge problem for the population. Jo Lauder: Yeah, it's interesting because climate is always a factor in this, and China was concerned about it. But it wasn't really the number one thing going on here. It was, as you said, it was this smog and this pollution crisis in the cities. They wanted to lean into green technology as well because they saw this economic opportunity to sell this to the rest of the world and get ahead of everyone else. The other reason as well is energy security. One of the reasons China really has pivoted to electrification is because they're quite dependent on imported fossil fuels. It's the world's biggest oil importer. And China has lots and lots of coal. That's why in that period of rapid industrialisation they really heavily relied on coal. But they don't have much gas. They don't really have much oil. And they really see this as a weakness. So they saw electrification as an opportunity to get off that dependence. Sam Hawley: All right. Okay, so, Jo, now, today, China has become a global powerhouse in renewable energy. So let's step through that. How has it electrified and become a so-called electro state? Jo Lauder: Yes, Sam, it's pretty phenomenal. So, you know, we hear a lot about targets in Australia and our 2030 renewables targets. China just hit its target six years early. So it is just streaking ahead. In April this year, China installed more solar power than Australia has in all of its history in just one month. That's what it's doing. And it is, you know, month after month it is doing this. And Australia is not even bad at solar either. Like, we have the highest per capita uptake of rooftop solar. We're a pretty sunny country. We're doing all right. But that just shows, like, China is just miles ahead. It's got half of the world's solar, half of the world's wind power, half of the world's electric cars, all in China. And there's more to come as well. Like, China has nearly twice the amount of wind and solar capacity under construction in 2024 as the rest of the world combined. So this is going to keep continuing. And the other one as well is EVs. They've been this huge driver of electrification. Half of electric cars all around the world are in China. And so these â€' and this is going to keep continuing. EV sales are really, really significant there. And so these things are all bringing about this structural change in China. Sam Hawley: And the reason, I guess, China is moving so quickly, Jo, is because the government, the Communist Party, is really investing a lot of money in this, isn't it? Jo Lauder: Yeah, they really put the whole state behind this. They put huge government subsidies and support behind it. The International Energy Agency found that last year China's clean energy investments were worth more than $625 billion US. That's double from when they started this project. So it's really significant. And Sam Hawley: it's also helping China's economic growth, right? Because it's actually exporting this clean tech too. Jo Lauder: Yeah, so this is the thing. They're exporting it. They're also implementing it themselves in China to deal with these issues. And this is a huge economic opportunity. They're not just doing this out of, like, goodwill and concern. You would notice most days now you see more and more Chinese-made electric cars on the road in Australia. A lot of our solar panels are made in China. And that's also bringing costs down for everybody around the world. And this is really important because the transition won't happen if it's too expensive, especially for countries in the global south. Like, it has to be cheap. And so China is really bringing that about for everybody. And this is going to have a global impact on emissions. So last year alone, there were some studies done, and it found that China's clean energy exports just from last year have shaved off 1% of global emissions outside of China. And they will keep doing that. They'll take 1% off every year for the next 30 years. And so that's just going to keep happening, is that this year there'll be more as well. So it's having a really big impact. Sam Hawley: Yeah, it's amazing. But there is a flip side to this. Jo Lauder: There is a but. Sam Hawley: There is a but because China's also building dirty coal-fired power stations still. Jo Lauder: Yeah, I know. This is the dissonance. And it's really interesting because China is often talked about. You know, people are like, it's doing great. And everyone's like, yeah, but it's also still the highest emitter and it's building all these coal-fired power stations. And so what's happened is, as China has had this massive kind of push of this new industrialisation around the Made in China plan, that takes a lot of energy as well to run those factories. And it's also got a growing middle class. This has meant that there's just more and more power demand. And so what's been happening is there's this kind of race that's going on as China has more energy demand every year, but then they're building more renewables. And it's just been up until now the demand has kind of been outstripping renewables. But it looks like that might be changing. But in the meantime, they have been building more coal-fired power stations. But what we're seeing is they're starting to use them less, which is interesting. Sam Hawley: Yeah. Okay. So are China's emissions actually coming down? Maybe. Right. Jo Lauder: Potentially. So as we said, China is still the world's biggest emitter, but there has been some interesting analysis. Carbon Brief is one of the groups that are doing some analysis around this. And they found that emissions dropped in the first quarter of 2025 for China by 1.6%. And it doesn't sound like much, but that's actually pretty significant. And there's some other modelling done. People are saying that it looks like the emissions might have peaked. And because they are adding more and more renewables all the time, there's this structural kind of change that is happening that emissions will start coming down. And this is really significant for the whole world because, as we said, they make up a third of the world's emissions. The other thing as well is, as we're talking about more and more EVs, China's crude oil imports have been falling. They fell for the first time in two decades. They're expected to hit peak oil in 2027, which is earlier than what was expected. So we are seeing all these positive signs happening. So people are optimistic that their emissions are going to start coming down. Sam Hawley: All right, so Joe, China is clearly pulling off this massive transition. Do you think that should be a blueprint for the rest of the world, so we could all transition to become an electro-state? Jo Lauder: It's interesting because this is obviously easier for China to make these changes. They are an authoritarian regime. They've been putting huge government subsidies into this. And so a lot of these parts of electrification have been easier for China to accomplish. It's also got massive scale. Like, China is a huge country. It's a huge economy. It means as well that they have this really fast learning curve. So they can really quickly improve and bring down costs. And that's what we're seeing. But I think that what it shows is that this transition can potentially happen extremely quickly if the resources are put into it. And it also shows all the other co-benefits. That's what I find really interesting as well. Like we said, you know, energy security, air pollution, like economic benefits. These are the other things that are happening as well that we tend to just focus on the climate side a lot of the time. But there's heaps of other things going on as well. Sam Hawley: How long do you reckon, Jo, then, until Australia could be an electro-state? We're a little slower, of course. Jo Lauder: Yeah, but the economics have fundamentally changed. And I think China's electrification, as we've been saying, is really making the whole world start moving away from petro products. In Australia, you know, the political realities are a bit more difficult. It's going to be happening slower. It's happening... It's a bit messier. But I think these changes are still happening. And then the other impact for Australia that I think is really interesting as well is what happens when these other countries electrify, that China is selling products to. They'll no longer need Australia's coal and gas. And, you know, from what we've seen in China, this could happen faster than we realise. So this is happening around the world. It's just a question of the speed in different countries. Sam Hawley: Jo Lauder is a climate reporter at the ABC. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Sam Dunn and Cinnamon Nippard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Focus narrows on reducing regulation to boost productivity ahead of round table
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ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
European leaders to join Ukraine's Zelenskyy for White House meeting with Trump
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