Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has warned Australia to be wary of Chinese interference in domestic political decision making.
“I think Australians need to be for Australians, Americans need to be for Americans, and whether it’s Russia in a secret way interfering with our election and producing more than 3,500 ads to try to confuse our electorate, to try to damage me, or the Chinese looking to try to influence policy, we should say no,” she told 7.30.
“I don’t care what side of the political aisle you might be on, in either Australia or the United States. We have an interest in making sure that decisions that are made by our governments are not the result of some kind of influence peddling by a foreign power.”
But Ms Clinton, in Australia on a speaking tour, does not think that means the relationship needs to be confrontational.
“Australia has a lot of interests with China, certainly your economy is intertwined with China. But I do think that Australia, along with other liberal democracies around the world, have got to take the threat of foreign interference seriously,” she said.
“I know from just reading that there have been instances of exposures concerning political efforts by Chinese interests, through contributions and other influence efforts to really direct certain policy outcomes.”
‘A lot of smoke’ in Trump probe: Clinton
Media player: “Space” to play, “M” to mute, “left” and “right” to seek.
Despite the bitter disappointment of losing the US presidential election, Ms Clinton refused to be drawn on what the outcome might be of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“There is certainly a lot of smoke,” she told 7.30.
“How much fire it turns out to be, we’ll find out when the investigation’s completed.”
With a recent poll indicating that more than 60 per cent of Republicans think the FBI is framing President Donald Trump, Ms Clinton backed the integrity of the investigation.
And she said those Republicans’ view may change once any evidence is made public.
“Our only recent historical experience is with [former president] Richard Nixon, and until the very end he had a solid base of support within the country, predominantly within the Republican Party,” she said.
“But once the evidence was actually presented it forced him to resign.
“So I don’t think any of us can tell where it’s going.
“Maybe all these stories and all of the finger pointing will add up to some perhaps unethical or…
