Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw (L) and FBI Director Kash Patel during Patel’s visit to Australia in July 2025. Kash Patel via X
The recent visit by FBI Director Kash Patel to Australia and New Zealand is aimed at melding counter-intelligence and influence efforts against Beijing, according to one defence expert.
“One enduring axiom of Chinese strategic thinking is that a politically divided nation is a weaker one,” said Carl Schuster, an instructor in the Department of History at Hawaii Pacific University, in an interview with The Epoch Times.
“Mao [Zedong, former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)] noted many years ago that political opinion drove democratic nations’ political will. So, modern China’s ‘Three Warfares’ doctrine (public opinion, media and lawfare) is intended to create those divisions.
