Imagine what it must be like to be a Fijian employee of the self-confessed Chinese Communist Party agent and alleged drug trafficker Zhao Fugang. He comes to you and asks you to appear with him in a photograph to use in his attempt to counter the explosive allegations against him detailed by Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes.
What do you do? “O, sorry Bosso, I really don’t want the publicity”. Yeah right. Your “Bosso” has been identified by western intelligence agencies as not only a Chinese government agent of influence but a major crime figure in the region – a man specifically named by Australian law enforcement as a major drug trafficker into Australia. You also know that he has close links with the Fiji Police – especially through the suspended Police Commissioner, Sitiveni Qiliho – so much so that he has actually attended police strategy meetings on dealing with organised crime.
So what do you do? If you’ve got half a brain and an instinct for self-preservation you say: “Io Bosso, no problem. What do you want me to do?” “I want you to pose with me in a photo with all of you giving me the thumbs up. Like, this, OK?” “Io, Bosso, set” And so the picture is taken and is “supplied” to FBC News. It says so in the photo credit.
This is the utter worthlessness of Zhao Fugang’s attempt to deflect the allegations away from him – the cynical use of his local staff as a prop when he makes no attempt whatsoever to address the substance of the allegations against him. He doesn’t even say “no, I am not involved in drug trafficking” let alone attempt to explain how it is that his name has been cited by reputable intelligence agencies with their eyes and ears – electronic and human – all over the Yue Lai restaurant and Zhao Fugang’s other “business” interests.
All we get is a bleat about how “unfair” it all is, how nasty the man from 60 Minutes was and how he has complained to the Fijian authorities about Nine Media, including allegedly entering Fiji as visitors. Nothing to address the substance of the allegations. And, again, no denial of what Zhao Fugang told the Nine reporter, Nick McKenzie, on camera – that he “works” for the Chinese government.
The gormless Fijian mainstream media laps up this crude attempt at spin. But the intelligence allegations remain. They are not based on hearsay or information from sources without merit. They are from the agencies that have responsibility for the security of Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Britain and Canada – the “Five Eyes” intelligence grouping – and the region’s drug enforcement agencies, including the Australian Federal Police.
Of course, China says they are an attempt to besmirch its reputation in the region. Of course, Zhao Fugang says it is all so “unfair”. They would say that, wouldn’t they? But if Zhao Fugang thinks that he has been hard done by, he can always sue Nine newspapers for defamation in the Australian courts. He won’t do so, of course, because the defence will be truth, backed up by hard intelligence. Hard evidence.
In the meantime, Zhao Fugang can get his local staff to give him the thumbs up as much as he wants. But it isn’t going to work. His activities have caught up with Zhao Fugang and his exposure as a Chinese agent and alleged drug runner mean that his value to Beijing moving forward is worthless. His cover has been blown – in the parlance of the “spooks” who have had him under surveillance. Which was doubtless the point of the intelligence agencies passing the information to Nine Media in the first place.
A disgraceful exercise in propaganda from CFL-Fiji Village. It is a given, as far as William Parkinson‘s network is concerned, that Zhao Fugang is “respectable” and Nine is the guilty party. Astonishing. And yet another example of the journalistic corruption of the mainstream media in Fiji.
Are you following the other development where Fiji water staff are choosing not to be useful idiots as the company that don’t pay tax don’t want to pay its workers either? Same company that has made Fiji government an international laughing stock and whose lawyer threatens journos for asking public interest questions.
It is the boil on the coalition government back that shows just how sick it is.
We must stand for something fairly or supinely fall for everything, not when it only suit us.