He's a leader like no other.
Commander of a formidable military.
President of a rising superpower.
This series tells the story
of Chinese President Xi Jinping's six-year rule.
He heads an economy that is now crucial to all of us.
Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty.
China was clearly going to be the great source of growth
in the global economy, and we want a part of that.
For years, world leaders have sought to work with him
to solve some of the most pressing issues of our time.
When we work together, it's good for the United States,
it's good for China and it is good for the world.
But in the West, there's growing anxiety about how President Xi's
China is extending its power.
Now media reports have suggested that the Chinese Communist Party
has been working covertly to interfere
with the decisions of elected representatives.
I think Australia is, in many ways, the canary in the coal mine.
In the US, the talk is no longer for cooperation.
We will have to accept some more tension with China,
some more confrontation with China.
And Xi is now facing the biggest ever challenge to his authority.
After years of tension,
pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have taken to the streets.
We don't want Hong Kong to become China.
We want our freedom.
Xi Jinping has transformed his country.
He could be President for the rest of his life.
So what does that mean for China and the rest of the world?
Xi Jinping has a dream.
China has to be strong, China has to be powerful,
China's has to have its future in its own hands.
The bottom line that I learned in dealing with China
is do not trust them. Do not trust them.
APPLAUSE
In a few moments, the United Kingdom's responsibilities
will pass to the People's Republic of China.
We shall not forget you,
and we shall watch with the closest interest
as you embark on this new era of your remarkable history.
In 1997, Hong Kong's 6.5 million population
was handed over to China after 155 years of British rule.
I think we handed over to China
a very successful, thriving economy,
a free society.
And China made lots of promises to us that in the future,
the democratic changes that we'd put in train
would be continued, and that Hong Kong would be responsible
for working out its own legislative arrangements.
The Union Flag and the Hong Kong flag will now be lowered,
and the national flag of the People's Republic of China
and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region flag
will be raised.
MUSIC: God Save The Queen
The British struck a deal with China's ruling Communist Party
that allowed Hong Kong to govern itself for 50 years
with minimal interference from Beijing.
Under the deal, known as one country, two systems,
Hong Kong was meant to have free elections.
I think we all hoped that, even though it would be a bit difficult
to make it work, that it would work reasonably well and ensure
that Hong Kong remained one of the freest cities in Asia.
I think that's changed since Xi Jinping.
One year into Xi's presidency,
the deal with the British came unstuck.
China said that Hong Kongers could elect
a chief executive, but they would only be able to vote
for candidates approved by a special committee
that was widely seen as pro-Beijing.
Protest on this scale is rare in Hong Kong,
but these students are determined to get Beijing's attention.
Its promise of one person one vote...
..rendered meaningless, they complain,
by its plan for screening election candidates.
They're now planning civil disobedience
if this protest doesn't work.
We want a true democracy.
We want genuine universal suffrage for Hong Kong.
University professor Benny Tai was one of the protest leaders.
APPLAUSE
PROTESTORS CHEER
As night fell, the crowd swelled,
sending Beijing a message that they're a post-colonial generation
who won't put up with exchanging one set of masters for another.
It was Hong Kong people fighting for democracy,
regardless of the severe suppression from the Beijing government.
Nathan Law was a leading student protestor.
It's one of the busiest intersections in Hong Kong.
I remember that there were lots of actions,
that the police blocked
the people, and conflicts happened.
SHOUTING
The police response was uncompromising.
REPORTER: A few minutes ago,
there was tear gas canisters going off in this crowd.
There's still a catch in the throat, a sting in the eye.
But right now, an uneasy standoff between the riot police on this side
and the crowd on the other.
As the demonstrations grew in size, the police pulled back.
Protesters, who were openly defiant of the authorities in Hong Kong
and Beijing, occupied parts of the city.
In the heart of a global financial centre,
a new day dawns on Hong Kong's democracy movement.
We saw college students, even high school kids,
risking imprisonment to send a message to Beijing,
asking for Western-style democratic reforms.
The demonstrators paralysed parts of the city for weeks.
The Government's clearly decided to let weariness, divisions
and public indignation drive the Umbrella Movement out.
The government made no concessions.
After two and a half months, the protests came to an end.
Expecting arrest, Benny decided to hand himself in.
In the years that followed,
the protesters continued to call for democracy,
but President Xi appeared impervious to their demands.
He actually took the opposite direction
of what the students had demanded.
And we have seen, progressively,
a tighter grip by Beijing on Hong Kong affairs.
He's really trying to develop a kind of virtual wall around Hong Kong.
He's trying to rewrite the history books and political science books.
I think the ultimate destination for Hong Kong in Xi Jinping's mind
is basically as an economically thriving,
politically quiescent mainland Chinese city.
APPLAUSE/MILITARY BAND PLAYS
On the 20th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China,
President Xi arrived for a three-day visit,
and then there was a carefully timed announcement
from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
SHOUTING
Tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets
to demonstrate against what they feared President Xi was doing
to Hong Kong.
But the protests made little difference.
Hong Kong belongs to China.
In other words, Hong Kong's entire sovereignty is part of China.
If Hong Kong doesn't have its own sovereignty,
the kind of democracy we understand, or explained by the Western media,
obviously is unrealistic.
If President Xi wants to say,
"You can't trust anything my predecessors did,
"you can't trust me. You can't trust China to keep its word
"in international treaties,"
then I guess we have to take that rather seriously.
It's very disappointing the way that Xi Jinping
has clamped down on Hong Kong's freedoms.
And I think we're getting close to the point
where we can say that Hong Kong is no longer
one country, two systems.
The Chinese Government says that the people of Hong Kong
enjoy unprecedented democratic rights
and extensive freedom rarely seen in other parts of the world,
and that the past two decades have fully proved
that one country, two systems
is the best institutional arrangement
for Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability.
It says what happens in Hong Kong is purely an internal affair for China.
China's approach to Hong Kong
reflected a new and more assertive foreign policy.
For decades, China had followed a rule -
hide your power and bide your time.
But under President Xi, that had changed.
APPLAUSE
Xi Jinping is saying, "Now's the time. We're ready.
"We have the strength. We see weakness
"in the other leading countries, and we will use all of these elements
"of national power so that China
"can retake its rightful place not only in Asia
"but in the world itself."
China is certainly going to challenge
America's place in the world.
China does not believe in the Western liberal democracy model.
China is forging its own model.
So, yes, in that sense, it will be a real rival, a real competitor.
Leon Panetta, as US Defense Secretary,
had developed a friendship with Xi Jinping,
but his initial optimism about US-China relations
was now fading.
While we were concerned about Russia,
Al-Qaeda, threats from North Korea,
China was operating below the radar,
and coming at us in a number of directions.
The bottom line that I learned in dealing with China
is do not trust them.
Do not trust them.
And always suspect
that they are making efforts to undermine your stability.
If you do that,
then I think you can ultimately find a way to deal with China.
If you don't do that,
then you're going to be overwhelmed.
What was alarming the Americans was China's growing economic power.
President Xi was using it to expand his country's
influence around the world.
China's rise has been one of the most peaceful in history
in terms of a nation that is challenging the economic status
of the largest and most powerful nation.
At the heart of Xi's foreign policy was a trillion-dollar economic
plan called Belt and Road, building infrastructure in countries that
couldn't readily get investment.
I think the goal of One Belt, One Road
is to increase China's national power.
We should understand that it goes east and west, north and south,
land and maritime-based - actually is of concern,
that you could have these tentacles stretching out in many different
directions and in many ways, that China could be gaining influence
over a lot of nations that feel they have no alternative.
Opening a new chapter in Sri Lanka's aviation history, the nation's
second international airport,
the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport was declared open today
under the auspices of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Those who say Belt and Road isn't just about trade point to Sri Lanka.
This airport, built with money loaned by China,
was opened to great fanfare in 2013
by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. His government said
it would transform Sri Lanka into a regional aviation hub.
This is the weirdest airport, I think, in the whole world.
It was ranked the emptiest airport in the world
by one travel magazine a couple of years ago.
It has no logical explanation.
President Rajapaksa ordered the national airline to land
at the new airport, even though its flights didn't need to.
There were no passengers to pick up or drop off. The planes would stay
on the tarmac for an hour.
Nobody would get out.
Nobody would get in. And then the flight would take off again.
So just the cost to the national carrier to land the plane
30 minutes after takeoff...
..and then take off again...
was...monumental.
The airport cost more than $200 million and was largely financed
with high-interest loans from China.
It was built in President Rajapaksa's own constituency.
Critics call it a vanity project, and say China financed it to gain
influence over Sri Lanka.
This was done not because of real planning, real projection
of passenger numbers - a real need.
Basically, money buys influence.
And here, it's a lot of money
and a lot of influence. China is playing a very serious role
in Sri Lanka's economy.
That worries me as a liberal Sri Lankan.
Just over 20 miles down the road is Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port -
another grand scheme, financed with Chinese loans,
in President Rajapaksa's constituency.
This 4,000-acre port, on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes,
cost $1.3 billion to build.
The government claimed it would boost Sri Lanka's economy.
We are at the third gate.
The first gate, we were there, is empty, the second gate is empty.
The third gate is interesting, simply because it's hardly used.
One of the main entrances is in fact being blocked by three cars -
that seems to be there for some time.
Critics say the port - like the airport -
has been virtually empty since it opened.
So what did we get out of all of this?
Zero.
Except for this whole huge debt that everybody's carrying
on our shoulders at the moment.
President Rajapaksa's son says the projects
WERE commercially viable
and the borrowing was part of a carefully thought-out
plan for the country.
We knew what exactly we were going to do
from the money that we borrowed.
We had a business plan, and this is the volume of Hambantota Port
that was during my father's government.
And if you can show this,
if you can see the growth...
of transhipment, you know, it is tremendous. The shipping industry
is not a tea shop or a coffee shop
to open and say "please come and have coffee".
So it takes time.
It takes time.
But the loans from China proved controversial,
and President Rajapaksa was voted out in 2015.
The new government struggled to keep up with the repayments.
So China took control of the port on a 99-year lease.
China now had its own port
on one of the world's most important trade routes.
The Sri Lankan government plays down the significance of the deal.
China is a useful economic partner and a world leader.
So they do play a significant role in economic activities.
I mean, if any countries say that they can avoid China and do
business, I think they have lost some fundamental thinking process.
In the US, the new Trump administration was watching
developments in Sri Lanka closely.
What the Chinese Communist Party's been able to do
with the Belt and Road initiatives is really set a debt trap.
And so what you have now is this servile relationship
with countries and with governments who now feel pressure
not only to meet the debt obligations but also feel pressure
to support China's world view, to support China's foreign
policy as well.
Some independent analysts reject that view.
At least it's not as bad as some people said, that Sri Lanka's
being trapped in that debt, and those kind of developments is only
for China's interests -
Sri Lanka would not get anything.
I think we should give it a little bit of time.
We should be a little patient
to see what eventually it will turn out to be.
But the concerns in the US are not just about the economics.
The likelihood of the People's Liberation Army pulling
into these ports in the coming decades is almost 100% in my view.
ports for at least a decade.
The only reason it doesn't have more overseas military bases
is because there haven't been enough countries that have been willing
to supply them, and Belt and Road is an answer to that supply problem.
The Chinese government says China accounts for
only 10% of all Sri Lanka's external debts.
It says the leaders of Sri Lanka have repeatedly refuted
the allegations that China has set up a debt trap
and the country was forced to sell its port.
And rather than setting traps,
Belt and Road is committed to enlarging the economic pie
in the interest of development of all countries.
It says there is no military intention behind Belt and Road.
But there's little doubt
that Xi Jinping is now using China's military more assertively.
China has many American warships and missiles pointed at China...
..from the Korean peninsula to Japan,
in the Pacific.
If you were China,
wouldn't you be worried?
You would carefully think about defence
and, yes, I believe that China wants to oust American presence
and influence in the Asia Pacific.
A big day for trade, a big day for our country...
The Trump administration was preparing for action.
One of the very early meetings
on national security as I joined
the administration
was on a China strategy.
And as we were doing this work
across the departments and agencies
and in collaboration with allies and partners, I think all of us
recognised we were about to effect one of the most significant changes
in US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.
Leesburg is a small town outside Washington DC - an unlikely location
for a skirmish in the growing conflict between the US and China.
Former CIA officer Kevin Mallory
lived here with his wife and children.
Lifelong Leesburg resident Frederick Cox knew him.
In 2017, when a storm tossed a large tree onto his house,
it was Mallory who came to lend a hand.
He had helped me
when I was in need of assistance.
And he had helped without being asked,
and I was impressed with that.
He just showed up.
He and his kids just showed up and did the work and left.
I thought he was a good family man and his kids
were well-behaved.
On 24th May, 2017,
Mallory told the FBI about what he said were suspicious contacts
from Chinese head-hunters.
He was looking for work and said they had approached him on LinkedIn.
He said, hey, will you join my network? He said, basically,
I can tell he's a head-hunter in a smaller firm - not his own.
The Chinese have specifically started targeting - via things
like LinkedIn and other professional networking sites -
former cleared US government employees.
You know, you can see my military experience,
you can see internationally,
you can see I worked at the State Department.
You can't see, you know,
I worked at the agency or as an agency officer.
The profiles that they put up online will frequently give
all the indicators that the Chinese need to figure out whether or not
they had clearances, if they were in positions of trust - positions
that would be beneficial to the Chinese.
Anybody who has a refined eye sees those kinds of things, you know.
If I'm trying to get a job, you've got to kind of say something.
Mallory told the FBI that this head-hunter, who said he worked
for the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences,
arranged for him to fly to China for a meeting.
Mallory said he grew suspicious when he was asked
about his connections to the US government.
I said, I'm no longer in the government, I'm in private industry,
but I have tried to get a job in the administration. There's a website -
you put in your CV, you say why you want to work for President Trump.
The President of the United States.
After he told them about his application to work
for the Trump administration,
he was offered a position as a consultant.
To have an asset working in the White House, where
you have classified material, you have access to decision-makers,
access to policy being made,
to potentially military plans, diplomatic policies
being discussed and formulated,
it's hard to imagine a more significant placement of an asset
if you are a foreign intelligence service.
What was your understanding? That you were supposed to be
collecting printed research or you were supposed
to be writing a paper for them, or what? It was kind of more general.
And they kept re-emphasising,
we just want to understand the policies,
what the Trump administration policy would be, and so on and so on.
For the second meeting, did you get paid? I got paid.
How much? 15,000, plus the airfare.
He says he became more concerned when asked about military secrets.
Specifically information about a missile defence system
America had deployed against China's ally, North Korea.
My judgment is these guys worked for Chinese intelligence,
specifically targeting...
..people...
..outside of the country.
The actual identity of the intelligence officer
that was handling Mr Mallory is Yang Shenxi.
And we were actually able to obtain a photograph of them
holding their own national ID.
Did you ask them point-blank whether they were really government?
Right. I asked them point-blank. And what did they say?
I mean, they were a little bit coy.
They were coy. They didn't deny it.
Mallory was posing as a concerned citizen
reporting a suspicious approach.
But that wasn't the truth.
He had already started spying for the Chinese.
CCTV from a month earlier shows him at this shop, preparing to scan
documents about two people he handled
when he was an intelligence officer.
Codenamed the Johnsons,
they reportedly owned a company with a presence in China.
Kevin Mallory chooses to send the white paper about the Johnsons,
and a few days later attempts to send the more detailed PowerPoint
that had more specific identifying information to the Chinese.
To make his story more believable,
Mallory handed the FBI a phone
the Chinese gave him with a secret messaging application
for sending documents.
Did you send them anything on that phone?
I sent some tests of some sort, just to see if I could do it right.
And I couldn't figure it out. I messed that up.
Cos he, you know, he wanted me to try to communicate.
Unfortunately for Mr Mallory, the custom application
that the Chinese had installed on the covert communication device
to ensure those secure communications
and the auto deleting malfunctioned.
What Kevin Mallory wasn't expecting is that, when he logged in
to that secure mode with FBI agents sitting there right next
to him, it pulled up a significant amount of history.
And, in fact, on the recording from the interview,
Mr Mallory even said, "There's quite a lot here,
"I'm surprised."
What we see in the chats is you see Kevin Mallory say
to the Chinese intelligence officer, "Your object is to gain information,
"my object is to be paid."
The FBI reverse-engineering expert was able to pull conversations
out of that device and remnants of US classified documents,
national defence information that had visible
classification markings on them.
A Leesburg man accused of selling top-secret documents to the Chinese
and facing life in prison if convicted will be released...
He was found guilty of disclosing military secrets to China.
You can't underestimate the significance of a person
like Kevin Mallory to the Chinese intelligence services.
It is a success that undermines...
..confidence in the services,
which is an incredibly corrosive thing to have happen,
so it's a very big deal.
Kevin Mallory is now serving 20 years in a federal prison.
He seemed like a very good man
and I must assume that, in his personal dealings,
I guess he still is a good man,
but in his political and professional,
I'm ashamed of him. Yeah.
It's hard to believe it's the same person.
Well, that's what makes you a good spy.
HE LAUGHS
The Trump administration was beginning to understand
the extent of China's efforts
to increase its power and influence in the US.
Including a secret campaign to silence China's critics.
Beijing is demanding that there only be one narrative about China -
a positive narrative about China's activities at home and abroad -
and anyone who dares dissent from that is going to be isolated.
They're going to be isolated online
or they're going to be isolated in real life.
This is Anastasia Lin - model, actress, beauty queen.
In 2015, she won the Canadian heat of Miss World.
Anastasia Lin! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
I don't know, actually, how to describe it.
It felt like the crown was a huge responsibility.
When Anastasia was 13,
she and her mother left China for Canada,
but her father stayed behind.
She followed her dream to be an actress in the US.
Some of the films she appeared in
focused on Beijing's alleged human rights abuses,
including portrayal of practitioners of Falun Gong -
banned by the Chinese Government in 1999 as an evil cult.
Sometimes, in the process, I have to interview people
who actually have experienced these things in China.
I interviewed a lot of female practitioners
who had been tortured, electronic baton, shot...
..raped...
..bamboo sticks stuck under fingernails,
force-feeding.
Anastasia herself practises Falun Gong.
Shortly after her Miss World win,
she was alarmed by a text message from her father back in China.
The national security guard has already came to him
and they said that if I don't stop talking about politics,
human rights and related topics,
then my family would be persecuted
like in the Cultural Revolution in China.
And I asked him, "Did they threaten you?"
And then he said, "Don't ask any more.
"Leave us a way to survive, please."
Anastasia was due to take part in the final
of the Miss World competition in Australia.
Two weeks after I won Miss World Canada,
and after they threatened my family,
the location changed to Sanya, China.
And so I was...
I was really nervous because after they just threatened my dad,
I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
As the competition approached, she realised
she was the only contestant
not to have received her invitation
from the Chinese.
Undaunted, she boarded a plane to Hong Kong,
hoping she could get a visa for China when she got there.
They did this, "Ah...
"No, you cannot go."
And I asked them what's the reason? And they said,
"No, there's no reason given," and they hung up the phone.
Denied a visa by China after publicly criticising
that country's human rights record.
There's one contestant missing from the event
and that would be Miss World Canada.
She's been stopped from travelling within China
to take part in the pageant.
Anastasia decided she had to continue speaking out.
If I go public with my story,
then there's a chance that my family will be more protected in China
because of the international media attention.
And that decision resulted in an opportunity
to talk in the US Congress about China's interference operations.
I felt like for the first time I was doing the right thing in my life
and I need to do this.
Religious freedom and human rights
doesn't really just affect people that are living in China.
They affect every Chinese who still have loved ones there.
It would be shocking to a lot of Americans to know
there are people living in this country -
perhaps American citizens -
who are being extorted and/or blackmailed
through the safety or...
..by the safety or security of their own relatives back in China.
She continues her campaigning.
Should we sacrifice human rights in pursuit of trade?
Should we accept that a cost of doing business there
is that we must ignore the suffering of millions of people?
But the pressure exerted on her father has been costly.
My father was a very successful businessman.
He had a huge company.
His business partners started to sue him
and he was bankrupt after a couple of years.
He's very scared to talk on the phone.
I could never get a full picture of how much pressure he was under.
The Chinese Communist Party know how to target
a person's most vulnerable spot.
Intimidating individuals is just one of the tactics
that critics say China uses to extend its influence overseas.
In the US government, there was also growing concern
about China's attempts to undermine its allies
though an organisation called the United Front.
The United Front is a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
Under Xi Jinping, that United Front has gone on the offensive,
on the offensive to undermine our confidence
in our democratic principles, our institutions.
Every two years US forces travel to Australia to conduct war games.
The countries have been close allies for 70 years.
But Australia also has deep trade ties with China -
making it vulnerable, some say,
to the influence operations of the United Front.
China wants to weaken and potentially dissolve
Australia's security alliance with the United States.
China recognises that Australia is a genuine anchor
to the American alliance system in Asia, in the Indo-Pacific region,
which in turn balances Chinese power
and prevents further coercive or aggressive action by China
into the future.
President Xi has revitalised the United Front
which has been around for decades.
It's the perfect instrument for trying to extend Chinese influence
in countries that before had never really experienced
the full weight of China's attempts to actually sway public opinion
by influence, capture politicians, and the like.
In 2015, Australia's intelligence agency known, as ASIO,
warned politicians about a secret strategy by Beijing
to wield influence in politics.
ASIO briefed political parties about the risks of accepting donations
from wealthy businessmen with links to the Chinese government.
It is very clear that genuine concerns were held
at a very high level within the security community,
within the classified space,
about the risks that Australian political parties were taking
in accepting or soliciting very large sums of money.
Journalists found out about ASIO's secret briefings
and began investigating.
Nick Mckenzie was one of them.
They discovered that one of the Chinese donors
ASIO had issued a warning about
was a billionaire called Huang Xiangmo.
Huang Xiangmo was a very, very wealthy Chinese property developer,
came to Australia in 2011 as a nobody
from Guangdong in southern China.
Within months, began splashing around money
like you would not believe.
Huang Xiangmo is openly a fierce supporter of the Chinese government.
But more than that, he was the head of the key Chinese government
influence organisation in Australia and Sydney.
It's called the Australian Council
for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China,
and experts say it is part of the United Front.
TRANSLATION: We overseas Chinese unswervingly support
the Chinese government's decision to defend our nation's sovereignty
and territorial integrity.
Three, two, one...
Huang Xiangmo weaponised money, he weaponised political donations,
he used donations spreading across the political landscape
on both sides of the aisle to gain this extraordinary access.
The question is - why?
Nick Mckenzie went digging for answers.
And it was in Labor - Australia's main opposition party -
where crucial details would emerge.
If Huang Xiangmo had one great friend in Australian politics,
it was the Labor Party's Sam Dastyari.
He was a young senator, an up-and-comer,
he had a great promise
and he also had a key role for the Labor Party in fundraising,
and that role put him into Huang Xiangmo's orbit.
A demonstration, Mr Huang, of how highly you're respected
and how much all of us respect you and the work you do.
It emerged that Huang paid a $5,000 legal bill for Labor.
He reportedly began asking Dastyari for favours.
We know some of those favours
included requests from Huang Xiangmo
for Sam Dastyari to see if he could move along
his citizenship application.
Sam Dastyari did call our Immigration Department
but that never really went anywhere.
Dastyari's willingness to help
led to the prospect of a larger donation.
We found evidence that Huang Xiangmo had offered the Labor Party
a $400,000 donation
but set a condition to that donation.
And it's reasonable to conclude that the intention of that donation
was to change the Australian Labor Party's policy
to support China and China's claim
to the whole of the South China Sea,
against the sovereign interests of several other countries.
But Huang's plan to influence Labor policy was set back
when Labor's defence spokesman made this announcement.
When it comes to regional security challenges,
like the South China Sea,
we believe our defence force should be authorised to conduct
freedom of navigation operations consistent with international law.
Now, once the Labor Party spoke out
about the South China Sea
in terms that the Chinese government would be critical of,
suddenly that promised donation was withdrawn.
So the evidence we had very clearly had a link
between this offered donation
of $400,000 - a huge amount -
and a key political party's view
on a territorial issue
of core concern to the Chinese government.
So there you have money and access
and money and the influencing
or an attempt to influence
Australian policy.
The next day, Huang turned up with Dastyari for a press conference.
Sam Dastyari parroted the talking points on the South China Sea
of the Chinese Communist Party.
He did it standing next to Huang Xiangmo,
this man who he had encouraged
to give so much money
to his political party, the Labor Party.
Dastyari's contradiction of his own party's policy
was seized on by the press.
The truth about his relationship with Huang was beginning to emerge.
Why did you... Sorry, Andrew. ..hold that press conference
and make those comments on the South China Sea?
OK, I'm not... I'm not... I ca...
While I can't be held directly to words
that were held at a press conference
that I don't have a transcription of in front of me... Let me be clear.
I support the Labor Party position on this issue.
Why did you hold the press conference, then?
No, no, no. Andrew, Andrew...
We'd like to ask you about your relationship
to the Chinese Communist Party
Why have you asked Australian politicians
to help you get a passport?
At Dastyari's last meeting with Huang,
it became clear just how much he'd been compromised.
We know there was a meeting between Huang Xiangmo and Sam Dastyari
where Sam Dastyari tipped off
or told Huang Xiangmo
it was likely his phones were being tapped
by Western spy agencies.
This has been a difficult week,
and this afternoon I've made a difficult decision.
Today I spoke to my leader, Bill Shorten,
and offered my resignation from the front bench,
which he accepted.
Sam Dastyari really did Australia a favour
in a very strange kind of way.
His willingness to solicit
and accept Chinese political donations
and to spout Chinese talking points on sensitive issues
and then, reportedly, to offer counterintelligence advice
to his Chinese donor and benefactor -
these were all glaring wake-up calls
to Australia and to the world.
The Prime Minister.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, I move this bill be now read a second time.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull commissioned a report
into interference operations by China.
..none will fully succeed without the others...
It was never made public,
but after Turnbull received it he announced sweeping reforms
to Australia's foreign interference laws,
and new powers for prosecuting acts of espionage.
Today I'm introducing legislation to counter the threat
of foreign states.
Now, media reports have suggested that the Chinese Communist Party
has been working covertly to interfere with the decisions
of elected representatives.
But six months later Turnbull lost his job,
and so far no-one has been charged
under these new laws.
Our politicians today
are extremely reluctant to call out the Chinese government.
In Australia, they are absolutely petrified
there'll be some sort of an economic reaction, a consequence,
even if what they're calling out is egregious behaviour.
The Chinese billionaire donor, Huang Xiangmo,
has, however, been barred from re-entering Australia
after travelling abroad.
The Chinese government says,
"Some have described China's normal economic cooperation
"and cultural exchanges with other countries
"as subversion, bullying and pressure.
"This sheer prejudice is utterly unacceptable.
"They have turned a blind eye to the abundant opportunities brought
"about by China's pursuit of peaceful development."
I think Australia is in many ways
the canary in the coal mine.
I would be quite astounded if the dynamics we're seeing
in Australia are not happening in other countries.
There are a whole lot of other countries that have been slower
than Australia to recognise the security risks that China's power
brings with it.
Xi Jinping's assertive foreign policy
was now facing growing pushback.
In the West, the talk of cooperation was increasingly replaced
by expressions of resistance to Chinese government influence
and power.
But there was one place where President Xi seemed determined
to extend his government's reach...
Five years after the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong...
..the authorities prosecuted Benny Tai and other protest leaders.
They were accused of creating a public nuisance.
ARCHIVE NEWS: A court in Hong Kong has jailed four prominent leaders
of the pro-democracy movement for their roles
in organising mass protests five years ago.
Benny was sent to prison for 16 months.
The imprisonment of the leaders was meant as a message by Beijing
to whoever in Hong Kong...
..dare to challenge Chinese sovereignty,
that they will be dealt with
the full vigour of the law.
But if the prosecutions were an attempt
to frighten people in Hong Kong,
it didn't work.
Hundreds of thousands came onto the streets to protest
against proposed changes to the law
that would enable China to extradite people from Hong Kong
to stand trial in the mainland.
We're having a massive rally fighting for our freedom
and also fighting for our rights
to protect Hong Kong.
Nathan Law was once again at the forefront of the protests.
The reason why people marched out is because they wanted to oppose
the extradition bill which allows Beijing to kind of legalise
the kidnapping.
The crux of one country, two systems is, while we remain
separated from the system of China,
we can preserve our way of life and freedom.
For many, the bill was a lightning rod for discontent with Beijing's
tightening grip on Hong Kong.
The mood on the streets was very different to 2014.
Three days later, there was another massive protest.
NEWS ARCHIVE: They arrived early to stake out their territory
with improvised barricades.
By mid-morning, their numbers were swelling.
They're bringing up reinforcements of supplies
up to where the police line is just over there.
Today, the mood feels more radical.
The police response was uncompromising -
rubber bullets
and 150 canisters of tear gas.
I was in the nearby area and heard gunshots
and experienced all this tear-gas stuff.
I was really, really shocked that the police decided to use
such a high degree of violence.
It was quite a chaotic scene.
Some may see it as a war zone.
Four days later, protesters staged what they said
was the biggest rally in Hong Kong's history.
Organisers said 2 million people were in the streets.
With the protests escalating, Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam
suspended the extradition bill.
I personally have to shoulder
much of the responsibility.
This has led to controversies,
disputes and anxieties in society.
For this,
I offer my most sincere apology.
But she stopped short of withdrawing the bill in Hong Kong's Parliament.
The protests escalated.
Demonstrators stormed the parliament building.
You can see these...
..more radical activists, they've just broken through the window
of the LegCo building here behind me.
They've managed to smash through this toughened glass
and they're now trying to get inside the LegCo building.
We love Hong Kong
and we want Hong Kong to stay Hong Kong.
We don't want Hong Kong to become China.
We want our freedom.
This movement has now morphed into a full-fledged
demand for democracy...
..and the pressure is now on Beijing.
Well, this has been simmering all day and now it's erupting.
Police are arresting demonstrators.
Some seem to be injured.
Others choking back tear gas.
This is chaos!
In August, a propaganda video appeared
featuring the Chinese troops stationed in Hong Kong.
It is pretty much an ultimatum.
It is Xi Jinping saying that, if you don't stop,
members of the garrison might be mobilised.
It's a decision which will show everybody that Beijing
has failed dismally to win hearts and minds in Hong Kong
and it has to resort to brute force
to enforce law and order.
Day by day, the situation became more chaotic.
The Beijing government
issued stark warnings to the protesters.
But they had little effect.
Some protests became more violent.
This was the day a self-styled democracy movement
came close to mob violence.
Fearful of infiltrators,
protesters seized individuals
they believed were undercover Chinese officers.
With emotions so raw, it was hard to restrain them.
For a second day, they'd occupied the airport and shut it down.
It's a humiliation for China,
which has warned that its patience is running out.
The demonstrations are the most significant ever challenge
to Xi Jinping's authority.
The power differences between Hong Kong people and China is so huge
that a positive outcome...
..is really, really difficult to achieve.
But we are coming out to resist not because we expect a victory -
it's because it's right to do so.
The Chinese government has condemned
what it calls the radical, violent and criminal behaviour
of some protesters.
But the demonstrators show little sign of backing down.
When we look at how China is handling Hong Kong,
there are some important lessons to learn.
China is not a democracy.
China is a communist government
that is an authoritarian government,
and that they are not going to openly accept
the freedoms and liberties
that the United States embraces
as part of our democracy.
The Chinese government says
it will stay true to one country, two systems
and make sure that it is fully applied in Hong Kong
without distortion.
It says it will continue
to unswervingly support Hong Kong's chief executive and government
and the gradual development of democracy
in ultimately achieving the goal of universal suffrage.
Today, under Xi Jinping,
China continues to grow more important and influential
on the world stage.
Xi Jinping has a dream.
He wants China to be respected as a power, as a strong country.
China has to be strong.
China has to be powerful.
China has to have its future in its own hands.
The Chinese government says
it wants to build a new type of international relations
and a shared future for mankind
based on mutual respect, equity and justice.
But as China's power grows,
some in the West now believe that more tension is inevitable.
I think until Xi Jinping, there was a sort of feeling
that China was moving in the same sort of direction
as much of the rest of the world, becoming more open and accountable.
I don't think that's any longer the case
and it does threaten to put America and China on a collision course,
which I hope doesn't happen.
The aspirations that we had that China was going to become
an increasingly responsible and benign actor
as it became more powerful
and more integrated into the international economy
didn't come to pass.
And so I think what we're learning today
is that we have a real problem on our hands.
We will have to accept
some more tension with China,
some more confrontation with China,
in order to protect our interests
which are paramount to us.
There will be a long-term struggle between the US and China.
And it's not just over trade - it's about Chinese aspirations.
US-China relations is going to be the key problem of our time.