Kevin Rudd has urged Australia's government and universities to stand up amid reports of Chinese influence.
Speaking at the Sydney Writers Festival on Monday night, he also described the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as "wilting" to conservative forces in the Liberal party when he refused to support him for the United Nations' top job.
And the former Labor prime minister, famous for his eagerness to engage with China, criticised the Liberals for voting down his attempts to outlaw foreign donations to political parties while in power in 2008.
He urged Western universities to stand up for freedom of speech amid concerns Chinese students were attempting to influence educators.
"We belong to a Western tradition of universities that celebrates Judeo-Christianity, the Enlightenment and the political emancipation of all mankind, universal suffrage," he said.
"We should have the guts to stand up for it. If and when the value systems are in conflict you stand up for who you are - the Chinese government will do that, we should it."
The talk came ahead of the release of Mr Rudd's autobiography, Not for the Faint-hearted, but focused largely on his time in politics.
Mr Rudd said he recalled speaking with Mr Turnbull to secure a nomination for the UN Secretary-General.
But, after the Turnbull government scraped into power in 2016, "Malcolm felt the hot breath" of his party's conservative hardliners including Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott and the support evaporated, Mr Rudd said.
"He just wilted like melting jelly in the midday sun."
