Defence summit in Canberra revealed 1,200 Chinese spies in Australia

The Australian Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan says the significant number of Chinese spies in Australia is a “failure of Australian institutions”. This comes amid the recent defence summit in Canberra, where a former Chinese spy has warned there are more than 1,200 Chinese spies in Australia. “We’ve published this figure several times before at The Australian,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “Most of those are … not full-time professionals and their predominant role is to surveil and harass the Chinese diaspora, especially the student community. Mr Sheridan attributes this as a “failure of Australian institutions and failure of governments of both sides of the aisle, politically.”