“This shows that a lot of Australia’s China experts have been worried about the direction of the recent debate, and have been looking for a way to speak out about it," he said.

Mr Brophy has been critical of Clive Hamilton's controversial book on Chinese government influence in Australia, Silent Invasion.

Signatories to the letter include Professor Jocelyn Chey, who received an Order of Australia, and spent 20 years in the Department of Foreign Affairs working on the Australia-China relationship.

Barmie has written multiple books about China and made a documentary about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The former chair of Chinese history at ANU, he is often critical of the Communist Party.

The first Australian ambassador to China, Stephen Fitzgerald, is also a signatory.

The letter has been submitted to a parliamentary committee examining the foreign influence bill.

It says that it "is precisely our expertise on China that leads us to be sceptical of key claims of this discourse.

"We see no evidence, for example, that China is intent on exporting its political system to Australia, or that its actions aim at compromising our sovereignty."

The letter says the polarising tone of the public debate over Chinese government influence was "dissuading Chinese Australians from contributing to public debate for fear of being associated with such a conspiracy".

The letter also "strongly rejects any claim that the community of Australian experts on China, to which we belong, has been intimidated or bought off by pro-PRC interests".

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The rise of China has many implications for Australia "and confronts us with difficult questions", the letter states.

Where criticism of China's actions is "substantiated by clear evidence, there should be no hesitation in applying scrutiny and appropriate penalties".

But it warned Chinese in Australia deserve the same freedoms as anyone else in a democratic system to express opinions and support or criticise any policy "without it being dismissed by accusations that they speak on behalf of hostile foreign interests".

Half of the signatories were Chinese people who live in Australia.