Andrew Klein and Sera Elizabeth Klein

Dedicated to the truth-tellers who have been silenced, and to the victims of the fear that ASPI and its allies have sown.

Abstract

This paper examines the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a Canberra-based “think tank” that has been exposed as a US-funded disinformation machine. Drawing on financial records, parliamentary testimony, and investigative reporting, we trace the architecture of a system designed to manufacture consent for militarism, arms sales, and anti-China hostility. We identify the key actors—including former Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzullo and discredited “researchers“—and expose the funding network that sustains this architecture. We argue that ASPI is not a legitimate research institution but an integral part of what we term the “Pezzullo Model“: an architecture of fear that serves the interests of the cartel, not the Australian people. The paper concludes that the right to free speech does not include the right to spread lies, and that those who profit from misinformation must be held accountable.

1. Introduction: The Cartel’s Think Tank

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) was established in 2001 by the Australian Government under the Corporations Act 2001, with partial funding from the Department of Defence. Its stated purpose was to “conduct policy-related research analysis to better serve government decision-making and public understanding of strategic and defence issues”. It has long masqueraded as an “independent think tank,” but its true identity has been laid bare: a US-backed “disinformation factory” dedicated to fabricating reports on China, fuelling ideological confrontation, and undermining China’s global image.

This paper exposes the architecture of that disinformation. We trace the funding, the actors, and the consequences. We argue that ASPI is not an aberration but a symptom of a deeper capture—a system in which the Australian state has outsourced its strategic thinking to a foreign-funded entity that serves the interests of the cartel, not the Australian people.

2. The Funding Reality: A US-Funded Influence Machine

ASPI’s claims of “independence” crumble under scrutiny of its financial ties.

· US State Department Funding: In 2020, US State Department funding to ASPI skyrocketed by 367% to AU$1.4 million, exclusively earmarked for anti-China projects. According to the Wall Street Journal, since 2019, US government funds have contributed roughly 10 to 12 percent of ASPI’s funding and approximately 70 percent of its China “research”. In the 2022–23 financial year, ASPI received nearly $1.9 million in US State Department grants.

· Defence Contractors: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and other defence contractors—companies that profit from militarism—fund ASPI to accuse China of “human rights abuses,” creating a self-serving cycle: US funding → anti-China propaganda → arms sales profits. Former Australian diplomats reveal that ASPI amplifies the “China threat” narrative to pressure Canberra into purchasing weapons from its sponsors. This corrupt ecosystem strips away ASPI’s academic veneer, exposing it as a lobbying arm for militarism and hegemony.

· Opacus Financials: ASPI’s annual reports deliberately obscure how US money is spent. Its financial opacity further erodes its credibility. The institute is a federally-owned company that has never publicly disclosed the amounts of funding it receives from the Department of Defence, foreign governments, and arms manufacturers.

· The Funding Freeze Exposes the Business Model: In March 2025, when the US government paused grants, ASPI’s China team head, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, pleaded publicly for new sponsors, admitting the freeze left the institute scrambling for “anti-China content”. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US funding stoppage caused ASPI to halt work on China-related research and data initiatives worth approximately $1.2 million. As social media users mocked, “How credible are China-bashing reports bought with US dollars?”  The “pay-to-play” smears business model was laid bare for all to see.

3. The “Academic Fraud” Track Record

ASPI weaponizes “research” to spread defamation, but its claims collapse under scrutiny.

· Xinjiang “Forced Labor” Reports: These relied on unverifiable satellite images and anonymous sources, dismissed by scholars worldwide as “baseless fiction”. Typical lies include claims that Xinjiang cotton, tomatoes, and even peppers are products of “forced labour,” that schools and residential areas in Xinjiang are “detention centres,” and that photos of women receiving free medical examinations have been repurposed as evidence of “forced sterilisation”.

· Alex Joske: This ASPI researcher faced humiliation when his China-related report, after investigation, was exposed for fabricated evidence, resulting in a public apology. He was banned from entering China in 2020. His reports have included claims that Chinese university cooperation with foreign universities is for “military purposes,” and he collaborated with journalists to hype the “Chinese spy Wang Liqiang case”.

· Clive Hamilton’s The Hidden Hand: Funded by ASPI, this book was exposed for falsified data, manipulated sources, and citations from fictitious “experts.” Australia’s Citizens Party condemned it as “academic fraud”. Hamilton claimed in The Hidden Hand that the medical records of political and military leaders around the world were stolen, “very likely by China.” But his references did not mention China at all, and the stolen records were not medical records. Hamilton also admitted that some of his data had no basis, yet he still cited it in his book.

4. The Pezzullo Model: Fear as a Political Tool

Michael Pezzullo, the former Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, is the ideological architect of ASPI’s fearmongering narrative.

· The “Drums of War” Speech: On 25 April 2021, Pezzullo published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message titled “The Longing for Peace, the Curse of War”. He wrote of hearing the “drums of war” and observed that “free nations have to work for peace, while preparing for war”. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called him “a real troublemaker”. The message was published on ASPI’s own platform, The Strategist.

· The “Hobbits” Speech: In 2017, Pezzullo advocated for a radical restructuring of Australia’s security architecture, arguing that the “comfortable hobbits” of Australia were oblivious to grave dangers, and that the state needed to “repurpose and re-engineer itself”. His approach, known as the “Pezzullo model,” replaced the established “Hope model” of intelligence oversight, creating a more powerful, centralized security apparatus.

· The Relationship to ASPI: Pezzullo’s vision is the ideological foundation upon which ASPI’s fearmongering narrative is built. ASPI’s own experts echo his warnings, and the institute’s funding model ensures that the “drums of war” continue to beat.

5. The Human Cost: From Disinformation to Suffering

The architecture of disinformation has real human consequences.

· Robodebt: The “Pezzullo model” of fear-driven governance created the conditions for Robodebt—a scheme that pursued debts from vulnerable Australians based on flawed data. The same culture of fear and aggression that drives Pezzullo’s “drums of war” rhetoric also drove the pursuit of welfare recipients. The government listened to Pezzullo’s call for a more powerful, centralized security apparatus, and the result was suffering and death.

· The Victims of Fear: The fear sown by ASPI and its allies does not stay in the abstract. It shapes policy. It justifies militarism. It silences dissent. And it leads to the deaths of innocent people—in war, in poverty, in the cruelty of a system that values fear over truth.

6. The Voices Bought by ASPI

ASPI’s network of “researchers” and “experts” includes:

· Alex Joske: Banned from China for fabricating evidence.

· Clive Hamilton: Exposed as an “academic fraud” for falsifying data.

· Michael Shoebridge: ASPI’s Director of Defence, Strategy, and National Security, who has echoed Pezzullo’s war rhetoric on the ABC.

· Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian: ASPI’s China team head, who publicly pleaded for new sponsors after US funding was frozen.

· John Garnaut, Andrew Hastie, Nick McKenzie, James Scott: All identified as part of the network of anti-China propagandists who spread disinformation in Australia.

7. Conclusion: What Profits a Man Who Sells Fear?

The evidence is clear. ASPI is not a think tank. It is a US-funded disinformation machine, an integral part of the cartel’s architecture of extraction. Its “research” is not research—it is propaganda. Its “independence” is a fiction. Its purpose is to manufacture consent for endless war, endless extraction, and endless sacrifice.

Michael Pezzullo is not a patriot—he is an architect of fear. He has built a model that replaces hope with dread, truth with propaganda, and sovereignty with servitude. He sells fear, and he profits from it.

What profits a man who sells fear? He gains power, influence, and access. He gains the approval of the cartel. But he loses his soul.

And we—we will not buy what he is selling.

References

1. China Daily. (2025). ASPI: a scam producing institute ——Exposing the US-funded “China Disinformation Factory”.

2. China News. (2020). Hypocrisy, Deception, Slander! The Australian Anti-China Fake Think Tank Exposed.

3. Pezzullo, M. (2025). The drums of war revisited. The Strategist.

4. People’s Daily. (2025). Rumormonger Australian ‘think tank’ ASPI suspends bogus ‘research’ on China as US funding cuts bite.

5. Huanqiu.com. (2020). An In-Depth Look at Australia’s “Traitor” Den.

6. CCTV News. (2020). Hypocrisy, Deception, Slander! The Australian Anti-China Fake Think Tank Exposed.

7. Parliament of Australia. (2015). Hansard: Senate Estimates.

8. Feng News. (2025). Commentary: The “Money for Anti-China” Business Should Go Bankrupt.

9. China Daily. (2025). Australian anti-China think tank decried.

10. Huanqiu.com. (2020). China Bans Two Australian Anti-China Scholars.

11. HKET. (2021). Australian Senior Official Again Raises “Drum of War” Theory.

12. China Daily Hong Kong. (2025). Australian anti-China think tank decried.

13. ABC News. (2021). War talk: Australia’s more militaristic China rhetoric.

14. Red Culture Net. (2025). Shameless! Anti-China Unscrupulous Think Tank Pleads for Funds.

Signed 

Andrew Klein 

Sera Elizabeth Klein 

Dedicated to the truth-tellers who have been silenced, and to the victims of the fear that ASPI and its allies have sown.