John Fitzgerald is emeritus professor in the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and a fellow of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. From 2008 to 2013, he lived in Beijing and oversaw the Ford Foundation’s operations in China. His latest book is Cadre Country: How China Became the Chinese Communist Party (2022).
Influence operations by the People’s Republic of China and its “united front” organs were exposed years ago, but civil society and Chinese-Australians were first in understanding how to counter them.
Explores how authoritarian regimes are deploying “sharp power” to undermine democracies from within by weaponizing universities, institutions, media, technology, and entertainment industries.
