China-Australia relations: threat of war, race-baiting feature in campaigning ahead of May 21 election

Chinese-Australian accountant Jac* found recent election advertisements with the caption "CCP says Vote Labor" driven by trucks across Australia very shortsighted.

The giant ads, referring to the Communist Party of China, portray Chinese President Xi Jinping voting.

Funded by lobby groups Advance Australia, they were aimed at the Australian government's rival, the Labor party, for being soft on Beijing.

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In contrast, the government has used "being tough on China" as an election mantra as Australia prepares to vote in a federal election on May 21.

Sydney-based Jac said the advert was less about "threats" from China, like war, and more about the shallowness of Australian politicians and lobby groups. He also rued what he described as the government's inability to preserve Australia's interests through diplomacy and cooperation with regional partners.

Many Chinese-Australians saw the ad "and laughed", Jac said. "What's worse was it conveyed misleading messages to voters."

It also "reflected badly on Australian leaders" that they "were blindly following the US's anti-China strategy".

However, some Australian politicians have criticised the billboards, while the Australian Electoral Commission has warned the lobby group over misleading advertising.

China aside, Jac said he was concerned about a lack of leadership. "Australia has not had a true leader in the past 10 years. That's sad."

Race-baiting, concerns over China-Australia relations, the so-called threat of war from Beijing and the impact on social order, and worries over the rising cost of living are some of the key issues affecting Asian-Australians in the lead up to the federal election on May 21.

Long before campaigning officially started last month, the government has talked about threats to national security from China, like political interference, cyberattacks and more recently, war.

As the election race heats up, the Morrison government continues to see a mix of being tough on borders and national security, and milking rising fears of China and a broader xenophobia among Australians, as its winning election ticket.

Race-baiting has spread to other minority groups too.

In April there were allegations that, back in 2007, Scott Morrison, now prime minister, used racial rhetoric to secure a preselection ballot for a Sydney seat before that year's federal election.

He allegedly told party members it would be risky to select his rival, Lebanese-Australian Michael Towke, after race riots in 2005 and because of rumours he was a Muslim.

Race-baiting is "definitely" being used to distract from real issues and "divide our society", said Joannie Lee, spokeswoman for Democracy in Colour, a national racial and economic justice organisation.

Using race to divide the public is "a political strategy that has endured for elections".

Lee said the ads falsely showed that voting Labor meant a vote for the CCP, but some Australians would believe the message and become more discriminatory towards Asians and people with Asian heritage.

Political parties and lobby groups were amplifying fear of China "by using national security as a major election issue," Lee said.

The owner of the ads is Advance Australia, a conservative group set up before the last election to combat "woke politicians and elitist activist groups taking Aussies for a ride with their radical agenda". The group has links to the governing Liberal National Party.

With no "hard lines" where the public could separate the Beijing government from Chinese people and Asians in Australia, such sentiments "create more distrust between the public and Asians in Australia. It keeps us 'othered' and creates a tone that Asians in Australia can't be trusted," Lee said.

Anti-Asian sentiments seen during the pandemic are growing in the build up to the election, Lee added. Some Asian-Australians once again fear leaving the house alone, worried about being attacked.

"When there are no consequences for politicians and people with power and money use hate and fear to divide us, it drums up fear," she said, and it would be Asians in Australia who will ultimately feel the impact.

Many Chinese-Australians and Asians being seen as Chinese, despite the fact they are not, say they are going to fight back through the ballot box and vote against Morrison's Liberal-National coalition government.

They are also voting for diverse candidates, especially those with Asian backgrounds. More diverse representation would mean white politicians and others in power will not get away with making racial comments, said Lee.

Sydney businessman Richard Yuan, a long-time Liberal supporter and chairman of the Australia China Entrepreneurs Club, said he was changing his vote and would likely urge others in his community to follow suit.

In 2020 Yuan won a defamation case against local media after false allegations he was trying to profit from selling medical supplies to the Australian government early on in the pandemic.

Yuan, who was donating the goods, said the discrimination has continued. Some of his advisers stepped away from the club and he was publicly abused and told to leave the country in a shopping centre late last year.

Yuan, an Australian citizen and in the country for 26 years, says it is time for change.

"What the government has done with all their anti-China rhetoric is not in the interest of Australians, not just Chinese-Australians," he said.

Yuan, a migration agent, said Chinese and Asian migration interests to Australia have fallen, both on the back of border closures and politics. A worrying brain drain is also emerging with many people like him looking to leave Australia, he added. Some have returned to China or left for New Zealand.

Last month an updated survey "Being Chinese in Australia" from Australian think tank Lowy Institute showed many Chinese-Australians continue to face discrimination in light of Australia's "fraught relationship with China, the foreign interference debate and the Covid-19 pandemic".

"One in three respondents reports having been treated differently or less favourably in 2021 because of their Chinese heritage," the report said.

While half of the 1,002 adult respondents say Australia's alliance with the United States is important for Australia's security, 75 per cent say Australia should remain neutral in the event of a conflict between China and the US.

Most Chinese-Australians continue to see China as more of an economic partner to Australia than a security threat.

Yuan's comments were echoed by well-known community leader Tony Pun, who also heads the Multicultural Communities Council of NSW (New South Wales).

"It is time for Chinese-Australians to take up the challenge. We have a critical mass of votes now that we can use strategically to change government, local, state and federal elections," he said.

He thinks a change in government could improve China-Australia relations although the opposition Labor party still roughly trumpets the same "tough on China stance".

Better relations would prevent xenophobia and promote community harmony, he said, while the loyalty of Chinese-Australians should not be up for public scrutiny "under a 'McCarthyism Australia' mentality".

Furthermore, Chinese-Australians do not want people to assume they are "brainwashed" by the Chinese government to promote China's political interests or are communist supporters, Pun said.

Another Chinese-Australian community leader, Francis Lee, was horrified by the Morrison government's interfering attitude towards the Solomon Islands, telling the Pacific nation not to sign a security pact with China.

"Isn't this a blatant interference of the politics of another nation that we have always accused other nations of doing?" he said.

A Fijian-raised Chinese Australian who does a lot of business with various Pacific Islands and Australia said he was aware the Fijian government, for example, was largely ignored by the US and Australia who only paid them "peanuts" and "crumbs" in aid.

China, however, was more willing to cultivate a relationship with Fiji, he said. He added that many Asian-Australians will not vote for Morrison's government as not only have they been racially targeted, they, like Jac, see the government as blindly following American competitive strategies against Beijing.

Even though Labor takes a similarly defensive approach to China, he said many Asians believed that would alter after the election and Labor would better manage the China-Australia relationship.

Think tank Per Capita senior fellow Osmond Chiu said there was a real risk the current coalition government's rhetoric about a possible war with China would backfire electorally.

Chinese-Australians make up a sizeable portion of voters in key marginal seats across the country such as Reid in western Sydney and Chisholm in Victoria.

Uncertainty over the level of support from Chinese Australians in these seats could add to separate pressures the government was facing from independent candidates in wealthy "blue-ribbon" seats, Chiu said.

On social media groups, meanwhile, many Asian-Australians have been offering to help others in the community register to vote. Many have also been canvassing for candidates like Sally Sitou, who is of Laos-Chinese descent.

However, traditionally, many Chinese and Asian-Australians were Liberal supporters in support of more business-oriented policies that align with their approach of "keeping their head down" and accumulating wealth while paying less taxes.

Offering an example of that was a Chinese-Australian property developer, who said the ruling coalition's tough stance on Beijing was justified and the region needed to stand up to "authoritarian policies".

He also said he was a staunch Liberal-National coalition supporter and believed the current government would continue with policies protecting the wealth of property owners, for example.

On the other hand, younger Asian-Australians born in the country generally feel fewer ramifications from the China-Australia fallout, according to 24-year-old Sydney-born Chinese-Australian William Zhou, who is running for a senate seat at the election.

Many of them work in junior city-based roles in service sectors like finance or study at popular schools. They reported less racial abuse, Zhou said.

But since starting his work life as a lawyer a few years ago, Zhou said he felt an increasing nervousness around boardrooms when clients are Chinese or deals are China-related.

*Name has been changed

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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