Bob Carr has blasted suggestions he is inappropriately supportive of the Chinese government as a war of words escalates between the former foreign minister and United States-friendly interests in Australia.
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Mr Carr, the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, says allegations that he was once reprimanded by a senior representative of the US government are false and has called for equal scrutiny of pro-American voices.
"We've got countless think-tanks, it seems in Australia . . . devoted to studying our relationship with the United States, a hugely important relationship for us and worthy of study," Mr Carr, also the former NSW premier, told ABC radio.
"We've got one, maybe two . . . devoted to studying the China relationship. And just as organisations looking at the Australia-US link take generally a positive or upbeat or optimistic view of the relationship, so we are inclined, like the existing federal government, to see potential and hope despite all the challenges in our relationship with China."
Amid increased focus on the role of Chinese soft power in Australian business, politics and academia, the work of ACRI has been questioned, with academics expressing concern about the independence of the body and its research resembling "party propaganda of the Chinese government".
This week, The Australian Financial Review revealed businessman Huang Xiangmo - head of the Yuhu Group and a prolific political donor, who founded ACRI in 2014 with a $1.8 million donation - has stepped down as the chairman following a major governance review.
The Australian reported on Friday that Kurt Campbell, then a US assistant secretary of state, was deployed in 2012 to meet with foreign minister Carr to express American concerns about his closeness to China.
Mr Carr rejects this as "absolutely false" and says the US government congratulated the Gillard government on balancing its relationships with the two superpowers.
He argues ACRI's positions on the China free trade agreement and South China Sea dispute have been consistent with Australian government policy, although he and Treasurer Scott Morrison recently clashed over the rejection of a Chinese bid for the Ausgrid electricity network.
Mr Carr insists think-tanks should be judged on the quality of their research and called for boosted interrogation of those considered close to the US.
"Peter Jennings' think-tank [the Australian Strategic Policy Institute] receives money from US arms companies, it received funding from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon," he said.
"I think a think-tank that is urging a policy of some hostility towards China - [that Australia] shouldn't be in the free trade agreement, shouldn't have joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, should be running patrols in the South China Sea - that receives funding from US arms companies, should be asked the same questions you're asking me now," he told ABC radio.
Mr Jennings told The Australian that it was "disturbing" how Australia's policy towards China had changed when Mr Carr was foreign minister and has previously said he is now "extremely consistent in the way he promotes a line that is about producing policy outcomes that are congenial to Beijing".
Mr Carr is close to Labor senator Sam Dastyari, recently forced to resign from the frontbench after it was revealed he had a Chinese-Australian political donor pay a parliamentary travel debt and reportedly espoused pro-China positions (flanked by Mr Huang) on the South China Sea dispute, at odds with his party and national policy.
Mr Huang - who said he personally appointed Mr Carr as director of ACRI - contributed $5000 in legal bills for Senator Dastyari and also heads the patriotic Australia Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, of which the NSW senator was recently a patron.
He has been linked to more than $1 million in political donations and wrote recently that the Chinese-Australian community was being treated as a "cash cow" for political parties and should expect better results for their contributions.
In resigning from ACRI, he said "unfair" scrutiny of his donations and incorrect allegations that he was an agent of Chinese government influence had become a distraction from the organisation's work.
A UTS professor of China media has also warned this week that warring coverage between Australian and Chinese-language media was alienating the local Chinese community and could drive the diaspora into the arms of the Communist government.
Some reports have misidentified Chinese-Australian donors, suggested with no basis that some are acting for the Chinese government, and described others as foreign or Chinese despite their Australian citizenship.
