Asian-Australians fear 'Red Alert' warmongering will fuel rise in racist hate

When Malaysian-Australian Thomson Ch'ng saw "China" splashed across the front pages of two of Australia's biggest newspapers last week alongside the words "Red Alert", his heart sank.

He knew from experience what was likely to follow - a surge in indiscriminate anti-Asian hate directed at anyone of Chinese heritage, irrespective of where their forebears had emigrated from.

"It is extremely concerning and frustrating," said Ch'ng, who is president of the Australian Malaysian Singaporean Association, one of the oldest diaspora networks in the country. "There are tens of thousands of people with Asian heritage who call Australia home. Yet their well-being and safety are once again being put at risk."

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The alarmist three-part series of articles that ran in The Sydney Morning Herald and its sister publication The Age warned of an impending war with China based on evidence offered by five "expert" panellists - some of whom have links to the avowedly pro-war Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, which is part-funded by weapons manufacturers, such as known China hawk Peter Jennings.

Dismissed as "hysterical and hyperbolic" by national broadcaster ABC's Media Watch programme, and "wantonly biased and inflammatory" by former Prime Minister Paul Keating, the Red Alert series has nevertheless sparked a public debate on the impact of irresponsible journalism - as former diplomats, community leaders and advocates weighed in to chastise the two newspapers for editorialising in favour of a war between Australia and China and hurting social harmony.

The articles have also raised fears that they will fuel further racist attacks in Australia, which already had an outbreak of anti-Asian hate amid the pandemic.

"Media played a role in causing this [racist attacks] by linking the virus to where it was first discovered," Ch'ng said. "Using words like 'red alert' will not only create more tension in the already fragile diplomatic relationship with China, it will put the [Asian-Australian] community on 'red alert' as well."

A day before the Red Alert series ran, Daily Mail Australia published an article about "a group of Chinese men" at an air show near Melbourne who it claimed had "aroused suspicions" by taking pictures of aircraft, citing a national security expert who accused the men of spying.

That article, which has since been removed from the Daily Mail website but is still available to view elsewhere online, prompted an open letter from advocacy body the Chinese Community Council of Australia demanding an apology.

"This type of racially based suspicion not only affects the victims but also causes profound discomfort and anxiety to Australians of Chinese and other Asian heritage," it said, adding that the "unfair, unreasonable and unacceptable" accusations went against human right and made members of the community feel "unsafe and uneasy".

For Chinese-Australian Chris, a Melbourne resident of more than 30 years who was born in China and asked not to be identified for fear of abuse, the latest news coverage reflects mounting anti-Asian sentiment in Australia that has him concerned.

"We live in a world of fear and I am starting to feel very uncomfortable living in Australia," he said, adding that he was puzzled by the Red Alert series' focus on an imminent war over Taiwan, as unification with the self-ruled island had been a stated objective of the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949.

Taiwanese-Australian Jeff Wang agreed, saying "talk of Taiwan" had been a "Tuesday night" staple at his family dinner table for years, so it was "nothing new". As a technology consultant in Sydney, Wang said he didn't feel particularly threatened by the recent rhetoric, but he thought Asian-Australians of lower socio-economic backgrounds might be targeted.

"Ultimately, the media hype on a war scenario has real domestic consequences," said Yun Jiang, a fellow at the Australian Institute of International Affairs who was among three prominent Chinese-Australians asked to denounce China's Communist Party during a 2020 parliamentary inquiry.

"It forces Australians to take a binary position even in the absence of war. Australians are expected to treat any links to China with suspicion, as they are assumed to be detrimental to Australia's interests. This can easily lead to racism," she wrote in a column for The Guardian newspaper in response to the Red Alert series.

"Among all talks about preparation for a war, preparing the population for a potentially divisive society is not part of it, even though, unlike war, this is already happening".

The diversionary nature of the Red Alert series was also highlighted by former Australian diplomat Jocelyn Chey, who questioned the timing of its publication "just days before the announcement of billions of dollars being earmarked for new submarines". Details of the Aukus submarine deal with the US and Britain, estimated to cost Australia US$245 billion over the next three decades, were revealed earlier this week.

"It's also interesting that the report was published ... just weeks before the release of this year's budget in a year when most Australians are concerned about the cost of living," Chey told This Week in Asia.

Former Australian ambassador Colin Heseltine said Australians were confused by the articles' claims. "If war is so imminent, how is a defence build-up programme [Aukus] that will take decades to happen, going to ensure Australia's security in the near term?" he said.

Even The Sydney Morning Herald's readers not of Asian heritage were critical of its confrontational reporting, with one asking: "Do your experts really understand the complex array of economic, political and strategic factors that lead to war? This nostalgic 'beating war drums' rhetoric does nothing to ensure good regional relations."

Sydney Peace Foundation Founder Stuart Rees also wrote in to criticise "experts warning about the prospect of war with China [who] have nothing to say about ways to promote peace."

Wesa Chau, a cultural diversity expert who was also among the Chinese-Australians a Tasmanian senator demanded denounce the Communist Party during the 2020 inquiry, told This Week in Asia that the Red Alert series undermined social cohesion in Australia by "stirring up conflict and disunity" between communities.

"The [Chinese-Australian] community is already on edge from the trauma created by the Coalition government's rhetoric," he said, referring to the administration of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who refused to condemn the senator's line of questioning back in 2020 and was ousted in elections last May.

Meanwhile, Chinese-Australian community leaders have asked Canberra to focus on building a better relationship with Beijing.

"Only a serious attempt to repair Australia-China relations and a better way of managing a rising China would dampen the warmongering narratives," said Anthony Pun, national president of the Chinese Community Council of Australia.

"Only when the Australian public is well informed with facts not fiction would the adverse effects to Chinese- and Asian-Australians subside."

But such conversations seem to have slowed, said Erin Chew, founder of the Asian Australian Alliance advocacy network.

"There hasn't been a formal acknowledgement of Sinophobia nor has the Australian government ever acknowledged the trauma the anti-China sentiment and the anti-Asian hate has done to the Asian-Australian diaspora," she said.

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

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