Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is simply an agent of China; a Chinese bid for an Australian mining company can't proceed because it has a project located 160km from a defence facility; and, Australia's defence minister is in hot water over his relationship with a Chinese businesswoman.
This is no plot from a 1950s anti-communist propaganda film, but a summary of the surreal events of the past week in Australian politics. China is becoming the bogeyman and the shadowy agent of influence all rolled into one. The Sino-Australian relationship is not as mature or deep as some might have thought it to be in 2009.
Until now, Mr Rudd has regarded his depth of understanding of China as positive for his government. Having a political leader who can get inside the heads of the Chinese leadership is a seriously useful asset, particularly when that political leader also gets on famously with the Americans, as Mr Rudd does.
But, in domestic political terms, Mr Rudd's much vaunted sinophile image has become a liability in the course of one week. Mr Rudd, claimed the media last week, had held a 'secret' meeting with party ideology chief Li Changchun on March 22 at the prime minister's official residence in Canberra. Shortly after the meeting, the Chinese media were carrying a story about Mr Rudd agreeing, at the G20 meeting in London, to push for a greater role for China in the International Monetary Fund.
Then, a few days later, it was revealed that Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon had been subjected to a secret investigation by his own department, apparently concerned about his relationship with an influential player in the Australian-Chinese political and business world, Helen Liu. Ms Liu is a wealthy philanthropist with close links to senior Chinese officials.
Then, to top off this bizarre week, on Friday finance minister Wayne Swan shocked just about everyone connected with the matter by blocking the takeover of mining company Oz Minerals by Minmetals, because one of the assets the company owns is a mine located 160km from a sensitive weapons testing range in South Australia. As one commentator put it, the Chinese almost certainly already know all they need to about Australia's secret weapons testing facilities, so why block this deal.
A view is building in Australia that China is trying to undermine its sovereignty by seeking to buy its strategic natural resources and influence senior politicians. Mr Rudd's political opponents are stoking this fire, accusing him of being more concerned about China than Australia. Canberra's decision to refuse to allow the Minmetals deal to proceed on spurious national security grounds is an indicator that Mr Rudd and his government are getting nervous about China.
But Australia cannot afford to allow its relationship with China to be hijacked by scaremongering and fear politics. Australia has a voice in Beijing and it needs to ensure it does not fall on deaf ears.
Greg Barns is a political commentator in Australia and a former Australian government adviser