Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s focus on China’s handling of the coronavirus has garnered the support of Australia’s leading proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory who tweets under the name Burn Notice.
Last week Burn Notice — who is also a Morrison family friend — endorsed Morrison’s role in pushing for the inquiry by retweeting a post about it to his carefully-curated Twitter feed, where he has 35,000 followers.
China has emerged as a central preoccupation for the US-based QAnon conspiracy theory, which has as its central tenet that the US is controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping paedophiles acting as a deep state.
The movement has expanded its remit to include opposition to COVID-19 lockdown regulations, as well as vaccines, under the rubric of individual freedom. It holds US President Donald Trump to be the anointed one to cleanse the world through the coming of “the storm”.
QAnon adherents endorsed Trump’s early position that the virus was a hoax, that it posed little threat to the United States and that it was essentially a deep state operation aimed at derailing his reelection.
An analysis presented in The Conversation reports that the movement’s anonymous leader Q first posted about COVID-19 on March 23 and described it as a Chinese bioweapon.
Trump’s escalating attacks on China over COVID-19 have also led to a deepening relationship between QAnon and the Chinese dissident movement Falun Gong which has a strong media presence in Australia through daily online publication The Epoch Times.
Reports in authoritative US outlets The Atlantic and NBC News point to an alliance of convenience, which emerged last year and has strengthened as Trump has sought to blame China for concealing its knowledge of the source and spread of COVID-19. The president claimed to have seen evidence that the virus emerged from a lab in Wuhan — in other words that COVID-19 is a bioweapon, as stated by Q.
The Falun Gong movement, through its New York-based company The Epoch Times, has given huge support to Trump in its online publications and its video channel, which gives voice to pro-Trump, anti-China critics.
The Epoch Times was founded in the United States in 2000 in response, it says, to “communist repression and censorship” in China. Falun Gong’s leader Li Hongzhi, a former trumpet player from north-east China, is known as “Living Buddha” to his devotees.
Li introduced Falun Gong in China in 1992 before he fled, claiming persecution by the state.
He settled in the United States where he has been honoured for his activities by the US government-funded international organisation Freedom House.
Li, 69, has made a number of fanciful claims. These include, reportedly, that aliens walk the earth, that he can walk through walls and that he is a being from from a higher level who has come to help humankind from destruction.
Li has put his now considerable financial resources and world-wide network behind Trump and QAnon, with The Epoch Times advertising heavily on QAnon sites.
From its offices in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville, Australia’s version of The Epoch Times crusades against the influence of the Chinese communist party in China and in Australia. It claims to be Australia’s leading Chinese-language newspaper in print and digital. It has offered editorial support for the Morrison government’s push for an inquiry into China’s handling of the coronavirus.
Inq asked The Epoch Times to explain how much of its editorial content was aligned with its US parent, and if The Epoch Times in Australia has its own view of QAnon independent to the US Epoch Times. The newspaper has not responded.
The Epoch Times seems to be growing its presence in Australia. Free copies can be founded in supermarkets and railway stations across the country.
When NSW town Wagga Wagga was considering severing its sister city relationship with Kunming in China over the pandemic, locals found their letterboxes flooded with copies of the paper.
What is the real influence, though, of QAnon?
A survey by the Pew Research Centre in the United States conducted in February and March showed that around a quarter (23%) of respondents had heard or read a lot or a little about QAnon, with 3% saying they’d heard or read a lot.
Pew’s headline conclusion is that QAnon’s conspiracy theories have seeped into US. politics but most people still don’t know what it is.
In Australia, Burn Notice (whose Twitter handle is @BurnedSpy34) now has more than 35,000 twitter followers — an increase from just over 20,000 supporters when Inq reported in October on his relationship with the prime minister.
Inq revealed Burn Notice’s claims that he influenced Morrison’s 2018 parliamentary apology to victims of institutional child sex abuse by having him use the controversial term “ritual abuse”.
Burn Notice is the alter ego of Tim Stewart. His wife is a close personal friend of the prime minister’s wife, who has been employed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Burn Notice adopted his Twitter identity on the same day Morrison became prime minister.
He refused to speak with Inq for this story, alleging we would distort his words.
Those of us who can still stomach time on Twitter should take an occasional look at the hashtags #AussieQ or #WWG1WGAAUSTRALIA. It is extremely hard to be objective about their contribution to human understanding.
Bring on the rapture and leave the rest of us to our tribulations.
Excellent.
Meanwhile, over at UnFairFacts, the parade of fools keep celebrating the Sinophobic nonsense put together by the likes of Hartcher.
One such fool ‘implored’ his ‘fellow Australians’ to read very, very carefully to what he was saying, and stand up against the abuses of the CCP. He had a very long list of said abuses, and it included Falun Gong.
It also included “East Turkestan (Xinjiang)”.
So, I had my umpteenth attempt at introducing a little factual content to the UnFairFacts ‘board’, in the interests of ‘balance’, you understand. I keep a basic template of this, and edit for specifics;
“Well may you ask; “are you focused Australia?”, because you seem to be omitting a number of salient facts on which to focus, thereby blurring the picture you present.
Let’s pick just one, in the name of brevity – “East Turkestan (Xinjiang)”
Remember the ‘War On Terror’, and the group(s) that inspired that focus?
UN Security Council – undotorg/securitycouncil/sanctions/1267/aq_sanctions_list/summaries/entity/eastern-turkistan-islamic-movement
EASTERN TURKISTAN ISLAMIC MOVEMENT
In accordance with paragraph 36 of resolution 2161 (2014) , the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee makes accessible a narrative summary of reasons for the listing for individuals, groups, undertakings and entities included in the Al-Qaida Sanctions List.
QDe.088
EASTERN TURKISTAN ISLAMIC MOVEMENT
Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee’s website:
7 April 2011
Reason for listing:
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement was listed on 11 September 2002 pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 of resolution 1390 (2002) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” or “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” Al-Qaida (QDe.004).
Additional information:
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is an organization which has used violence to further its aim of setting up an independent so-called “East Turkistan” within China. Since its establishment, ETIM has maintained close ties with the Taliban, Al-Qaida (QDe.004) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (QDe.010). It was founded by Hasan Mahsum from Xinjiang, China, who was killed by Pakistani troops in October 2003. ETIM is currently led by Abdul Haq (QDi.268), who was also a member of Al-Qaida’s Shura Council as of 2005.
Since January 2007, ETIM has, again, become active under the sanctuary and with the support of the Taliban and Al-Qaida………..”
ETIM have had a couple of name changes, one being the “Turkistan Islamic Party”.
Late 2013 – theguardiandotcom/world/2013/nov/25/islamist-china-tiananmen-beijing-attack
“Islamist group claims responsibility for attack on China’s Tiananmen Square
Group releases eight-minute audio clip which warns of future attacks in Beijing
A radical Islamist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on Tiananmen Square last month and warned of future attacks in the Chinese capital, according to an eight-minute audio clip obtained by a US-based internet monitoring organisation.
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) is the first group to claim responsibility for the attack on 28 October..”
My ‘eyes/mind’ are anything but diverted, and they will never be by people who cherry pick history.”
Umpteenth plus one failure, and the fools roll on.
All this hardly justifies what the CCP is doing to the moslem population of Xinjiang provence.
Precisely, Tonyl. The CCP has used Bush’s hysterical unhinged reaction to 9/11 (which he was clearly warned about beforehand and ignored just as he hypocritically ignored Susi Arabia’s central role in it) as a cover for cultural genocide in Xinjiang.
Fan of Osama’s m.o., are ya, ya dope!
Fair dinkum, the pig ignorance of those who read nothing, learn nothing, is a blight on this nation’s intelligence.
Ever heard of ‘Operation Timber Sycamore’? Nothin’ to do with Bush! It’s just the ‘Amerikan Way’!
en.wikipediadotorg/wiki/Timber_Sycamore
Yes, EVEN wikipedia!
“Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by some Arab intelligence services, such as the security service in Saudi Arabia. Launched in 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to rebel forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War. According to US officials, the program was run by the CIA’s Special Activities Division [6] and has trained thousands of rebels.[7][8] President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013.[9]
The program’s existence was suspected after the US Federal Business Opportunities website publicly solicited contract bids to ship tons of weaponry from Eastern Europe to Taşucu, Turkey and Aqaba, Jordan.[10] One consequence of the program has been a flood of US weapons including assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades into Middle East’s black market…”
For ’embattled rebels’ read Al Qaeda (and various rebadgings) and ISIS/ISIL.
Oh, look, Wikipedia, again! – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkistan_Islamic_Party_in_Syria
“The Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria (TIP; Arabic: الحزب الإسلامي التركستاني في سوريا) is the Syrian branch of the Turkistan Islamic Party, an armed Uyghur Salafist jihadist group with a presence in the Syrian Civil War. While the TIP has been active in Syria, the organization’s core leadership is based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a presence in its home territory of China.”
Guess where the Uighur jihadists have gone, now that the Russians have mastered the terrorists in Syria?
Libya, of course!!
None so blind as those who refuse to see.
Cya next time.
Well the CCP isn’t burning Muslims at the stake or making people go forth wearing suicide vests, being about the only thing Muslims have invented in the last 100 years.
You would not have a freakin’ clue what goes on in Xinjiang Province – you’re a ‘victim’ of the sort of bog standard bathwater that’s poured down the gullets of most of your ilk.
You do know the HQ of the Uighur ‘independence movement’ is comfortably tucked up in Washington D.C. and funded by the likes of the ‘National Endowment for Democracy’?
This Vietnamese-American has been there, along with a handful of other Americans.
blackagendareportdotcom/my-trip-china-exposed-shameful-lies-peddled-american-empire
“My Trip to China Exposed the Shameful Lies Peddled by the American Empire”
“….The truth is that peace-loving people in the U.S. would love China were it not for the plethora of racist, imperialist lies that have been programmed into the minds of Westerners. None of the Empire’s lies held up in my travels from Beijing to Xi’an, then to Dunhuang to Ürümqi—known as the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. I didn’t see concentration camps for Uyghurs in Xinjiang. In fact, it is difficult to walk more than a mile without running into a mosque. Every street sign in the city is translated in both Mandarin and Uyghur languages. Security is more plentiful in Ürümqi than in Beijing or Xi’an, and for good reason. Most Westerners are unaware that Xinjiang Province is the site of numerous terror attacks that have taken the lives of hundreds of people. As recently as 2014, the foreign-backed terrorist organization East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) committed several attacks in Urumqi, killing dozens and injuring hundreds more. It is important to note that the founder of the broader Uyghur independence movement, Anwar Yusef Turani , operates his “government in exile” in Washington D.C and that the World Uyghur Congress is funded heavily by the National Endowment for Democracy , a virtual branch of the CIA. There is thus nothing progressive about Uyghur independence and nothing about Ürümqi indicated otherwise….”
Yes- thank you- I had been scratching my head about all of this as I travelled overland through western China from Pakistan in ‘92 and saw an independently operating area linked to the other ‘Stans and openly Muslim….wonderful part of the world——-
Hartchers chest thumping is sick making. Perhaps Greg Sheridan is approaching retirement and Hartchers is putting his job application in early.
I do not like that man’s bloated opinions. I think he sees himself as the only realist on the bus, he is an LNP spruiker, first class, and his treatment of Gillard because she didn’t genuflect in his presence revealed his character, in my bloated opinion.
I made the mistake of tuning in to The HumDrum this eve, Dog’s – and, there was Hartcher, oh so smoooooth, and completely and utterly dishonest.
And, he’s as thick as 2 short planks. The rubbish he wrote, and spoke, after the WHA ‘discussion’ about the ‘investigation’ into all things virus, was almost, ALMOST, beyond belief.
Up until yesterday, he’d been nothing more than a conduit for Schlo & Co, and simply regurgitated the dictation Morrison had taken from Trump, in their phone call on April 22nd.
Within 48 hours of taking that dictation, Morrison (and Payne) had ‘revealed’ the master plan for a ‘fully independent investigation’ into all things ‘Wuhan virus’, WHO collusion with China, with the kicker of peddling ‘health investigators’ being given ‘intervention powers’ akin to UN weapons inspectors.
What chance that?!
Then, after the Europeans drafted the resolution to put to the WHA, and it looked nothing like Schlo & Co’s proposal, but a whole lot like the Chinamen had been suggesting since day dot, ‘Hartch’ slips into ‘Plan B’ mode, this morning, and starts wondering aloud if we can trust Trump.
Then ‘whoosho’, he’s on The HumDrum, spruiking the EU/WHA resolution being in line with Schlo & Co’s transcribed dictation.
He is either completely stupid, or completely dishonest.
Either way, a grub.
Conspiracy theorists and religious nuts and the less than six degrees of separation to our Prime Minister – oh what a tangled web we weave, we human beings. https://www.housetherapy.com.au/delusions-about-god-turned-me-to-drugs/
Nice article.
Over the course of my life, i’ve known a few conspiracy theorists .(well previous to these latest theories ) .Some of them i’d known for yrs .Quite good acquantinces .Able to tie their shoe laces, quite skilled in most social graces & conduct normal good conversations about the weather ,footy ,etc .It was just some particular subject matter, where they went out on a limb, bat shit crazy in search of, & found some theory of everything, that somehow made everything add up . Other than that..they could be quite reasonable ..& I learnt not to engage with them about particular matters..
I’ve had similar experiences with such people, Enid. It’s as if some strange virus has lodged itself in their brain and allowed them to keep functioning normally except for some of their strange beliefs. We’ve got a perfect example of this in David above with his bizarre idea (among others) that there’s a terrorist Muslim organization based in Washington creating havoc in Xinjiang which the CCP is defending itself against. Like yourself, I’ve learn not to engage with them. It’s a waste of time.
“Burn Notice”? My eyes, this light…. I thought that read “Bum Notice” at first.
Are we being a tad harsh on Scotty From Marketing – playing scooter for the Trump Muppet Show?
This Lesser PotUS does have an election to win – and concentrating on his negligent mishandling of this “Chinese conspiracy virus”, with the number of lives lost, isn’t going to help.
He needs a distraction from such trappings of his presidency – Scotty’s more than willing to be just here (and there) to help. No more, no less?
“Scooter”