Clive's always been in politics, hasn't he? I had a look at
his wikipedia entry to see how he grew up (and it says nothing much except that he was suburban kid with a family rich enough to support his education), and it suggests he's been screwing around in political stuff since before 1970.
The thing is, Australia has a fair bit of anxiety about China, right? Reading newspapers from time to time over the last few years you see worries about the amount of real estate Chinese companies buy in Sydney, the number of resource companies they want, and so on. So when Clive-y says,
"They're Communists, they shoot their own people, they haven't got a justice system, and they want to take over this country," he might well have his finger on the pulse. Or one of the pulses. The primary replies, as far as can be judged by a brief scan of the news, are only two: "that's racist!" and "omg, our trade links!" Both strike me as inadequate. The Chinese reply -
"that's absurd and irresponsible" - is equally shallow. The Chinese embassy in Australia said:
"We believe that a sound China-Australian relationship serves the fundamental interests of both countries. It is and will always be supported by the two peoples."http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-19/government-extending-olive-branch-to-china-after-palmer-tirade/5681118Imputing China-serving beliefs to these "two peoples" is not racist, obviously, but it is as broad a generalization as Clive's and possibly even more self-serving.
In sum, there might be a fair number of otherwise normal Australia citizens saying,
well yeah, Clive, we know what you mean (though you're kind of racist about it and omg our trade ties). How many other politicians are actively addressing the zeitgeist? Lord help us if the only other one is Jackie Lambie.