Hot on the heels of federal government claims that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would be “very happy” to see the Australian Labor Party (ALP) win the next election, the chair of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Liberal Senator James Patterson, has launched another volley at the ALP, this time targeting Deputy Leader Richard Marles. On Feb. 14, Patterson posted in a thread on Twitter questioning why Marles’ team removed from his website a September 2019 speech to the Foreign Studies University in Beijing, where the deputy leader said defining the CCP as an enemy would be a “profound mistake.” Marles, who was then-shadow minister for defence, was conciliatory in his speech on Beijing’s relations with democratic nations. “The vital work of deepening our two countries’ engagement must also include the strategic dimension of our relationship,” he said. “Our starting point has to be that we respect China and deeply value …
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