The recording to the UTS-Australia China Relations Institute panel discussion can be accessed via this link:
With a 20% tariff (this includes an additional 10%) imposed on Chinese imports by the Trump Administration, the Chinese Government has remained defiant and hit back by announcing that it would not shy away and concede any fight (trade or otherwise) begun by the US.
“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” said a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. This quote was also posted on X by the Chinese embassy in the US.
With such a strong stance, China has positioned itself as not only a heavyweight adversary to the US, but also a superpower which will not conform to the Western rules-based order. This sentiment from the Chinese foreign ministry was reinforced again in a speech made by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the recent third session of the 14th National People’s Congress where he accused the US of being “two faced” and said China would counter any pressure coming from the US,
“No country should think that it can suppress China and maintain good relations,” he strongly stated.
Imposing itself as a global leader, the People’s Republic of China has also become a voice of reason against the backdrop of a petulant child of the US on issues such as war, conflict, world aid and global development. This demonstrates that global conflicts and diplomacy between world empires have changed and the dynamics are pointing towards a more considered China as opposed to an erratic, chaotic and authoritarian US.
It is this topic of China’s positioning and its impact on the Chinese diaspora which became a focal element at the University of Technology, Sydney Australia-China Relations Institute’s panel discussion titled “Australian-Chinese voters’ concerns and priorities”. Moderated by Chinese politics, language and culture expert Linda Javin, the panel included Professor Wanning Sun, Research Fellow at Per Capita Osmond Chiu and founder for the Asian Australian Alliance Erin Wen Ai Chew.
It is interesting to see how the tables have turned in the geopolitics between Australia-China and the US and as former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said in an interview with Bloomberg television. Trump said Turnbull is perceived as a “weak and ineffective leader” and does not understand China.
Closer to home, these geo-politics have definitely affected Australian-Chinese communities and were a major factor in voting trends by the community during the 2022 federal election. Chiu picked up this point at the UTS-Australia China Relations Institute panel discussion, and added that both Labor and Liberal parties had their own rhetoric and spin when it came to the topic of discussing the growing influence of China and the supposed threat of war.
This affected how Australian-Chinese communities voted as they predominantly lived in marginal seats which traditionally would determine the outcome of the election. Australian-Chinese voters felt demonised and this was reflected in how they voted. Will Australian-Chinese communities vote similarly in 2025 as they did back in 202? Keep in mind back in 2022, the demonisation of Australian-Chinese communities was compounded by racism as a result of the COVID pandemic.
For Chew (also on the panel), COVID marked a pivotal moment in awakening Australian-Chinese communities in realising that anti-Asian/Chinese hate was and still is a major issue and Australian political parties and politicians alike scapegoated the community to grab score points with the US. This was basically the strategy used by the former Australian Government, led by Scott Morrison, whose narratives around China and the pandemic were negative and divisive. Wanting a global investigation into China with regards to the origins of COVID was not an election-winning strategy and this was reflected in the 2022 election results where an Albanese Labor Government won convincingly.
However, the question remains whether it will similar in the upcoming 2025 election. Despite all these anti-China narratives, it is still up in the air as to whether people will vote as they did back in 2022. Seats where Australian-Chinese communities voted for change back in 2022 may not necessarily vote the same way in 2025. Strained by diplomatic, economic and security issues, the Albanese Government toys with the conundrum of attempting to maintain civility with China and at the same time ensuring its relationship with the US remains strong. This has proven to be a difficult juggling act, sending mixed signals to the Australian public about Australia’s relationship with China.
With the 1.4 million Australians who identify as having some sort of Chinese heritage, it is extremely important that Australian political parties and candidates of all political creeds employ the correct strategy to win the hearts and minds of the ever changing and growing community of voters.
What factors are shaping Australian-Chinese communities’ voting preferences? Is the current geopolitics of US and Australia-China relations a major issue? Or are other issues more important? These quandaries have baffled Australian political strategists and political parties over many elections due to the fact that the dynamics with Australian-Chinese communities are layered, complex and changing. A major component of this complexity is to consider the diversity and differences between Mainland Chinese and all the different Chinese diasporic communities. Each of these Australian-Chinese communities are similar, yet very different in how they see and perceive political and social issues. Sun (on the panel discussion) saw this as an extremely important point to discuss, and mentioned that even within just the Mainland Chinese cohort there are many differences depending on when they migrated to Australia, US etc. She explained this by using the term “layering of Chinese-ness” and spoke about the different waves of Mainland Chinese migration such as those who came during the great economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, and those who came after the 1990s and benefitted from the economic reforms. These different cohorts of Mainland Chinese shifted the demographics of the composition of the Chinese diaspora in Australia, US and other Western countries dramatically.
The question of how they have fared in terms of adapting to the “so-called” Australian/Western way of living is also a complex conversation and as Sun alludes, it is quite “uneven”. A lot of this is due to the different levels of English proficiency, understanding and engagement with Australian civic society and the lack of interest and interaction with the issues impacting on the Chinese diasporic communities at a grassroots level.
On a more global and holistic level, Australian-Chinese communities like the American-Chinese communities and so forth would/will vote similarly but also very differently depending on their own histories and memories (positive, negative and traumatic) from their home countries as well as generational considerations. During the 2024 US elections, a number of American-Chinese communities were out in public strongly supporting the Trump 2024 campaign. A president who won the election by dividing a nation socially, economically and politically received significant support from certain American-Chinese communities. Many of these groups and individuals despite being of Chinese descent held deep-seated views that China is definitely a threat to America and the Western world. Many also come from an anti-Communist and anti-government philosophies, and this prevailed and overtook their thoughts, loyalties and concerns.
Will this Trump support phenomenon occur in Australia and would these types of right-wing philosophies appeal to various generations of Australian-Chinese communities and how they see politics? The likelihood is a no, but considering how conservative Australian-Chinese voters are and can be due to traditions, cultural norms, social ethics, political values and economic outlook being predominantly more rigid, a return to conservative voting trends may prove threatening to a Labor victory in 2025. Now it is all about how the Albanese Labor government and a Peter Dutton-led Liberal Coalition campaign with the Australian-Chinese voters in mind. It is really just a wait and see game to see if they have learned lessons from failed past attempts to appeal to the community’s voting expectations and priorities.
Erin Wen Ai Chew
Ms Erin Wen Ai Chew is a social activist, freelance writer, entrepreneur and thought leader who has dedicated a good part of the last 10 years in addressing social issues impacting on the Asian Australian community. In 2013, Ms Chew founded the Asian Australian Alliance which is a network that focuses on empowering and advancing the voices of the Asian Australian community and advocate on relevant common issues. With the leadership of Ms Chew, the Asian Australian Alliance has been leading the conversation on issues of racism and representation, Asian Australian LGBTIQ issues, issues around domestic violence against Asian Australian women and mentoring the Asian Australian youth.