Pearls and Irritations

In electorates with high numbers of Chinese and Muslim voters, it is time for a reckoning with Labor’s AUKUS policy.

A 2024 poll sheds light on the persistent anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia, with findings that suggest the AUKUS policy is playing a significant role in maintaining this atmosphere, despite the Labor government’s more “restrained” public rhetoric on China.

Published by Professor Wanning Sun at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australian Centre for Research in International Affairs (UTS:ACRI), the UTS:ACRI/BIDA Poll 2024 reveals that a troubling proportion of Australians continue to view Chinese-Australians with suspicion and fear.

One striking statistic from the study shows that four in 10 Australians believe Chinese-Australians could be ‘mobilised’ by Beijing to undermine Australia’s interests and social cohesion. Alarmingly, this figure has remained consistent for three years running.

For many Chinese-Australians, this mistrust is felt acutely. A 2023 survey of nearly 700 first-generation migrants from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) published in the UTS:ACRI report First Generation PRC Migrants and Social Cohesion revealed deep concerns within this community. Seven in 10 respondents reported that Australia’s English-language media often portray them as suspects, threatening national security.

Many respondents expressed that, despite the diverse range of political opinions among them, they feel increasingly mistrusted and misinterpreted in the public eye—a sentiment that has intensified in recent years.

Perhaps most alarmingly, 91 percent of respondents expressed concern about their safety and future in the event of an escalating conflict with the PRC. This widespread anxiety underscores the vulnerability felt by many in the Chinese-Australian community, particularly in the context of Australia’s growing alignment with US-led military strategies like AUKUS.

Despite an increased level of interest in engaging with Australia’s electoral processes as voters, 76 percent of survey respondents report that they feel that they rarely or never have a say in shaping public debates. Around six in 10 (63 percent) report prevalent feelings of powerlessness in relation to having their voices heard by the media.

A small number of respondents report having lodged complaints about media reporting by writing either to politicians (eight percent) or the media outlet in question (six percent). However, most report that they tend to process such daily feelings of ‘discursive injustice’ by airing them within their own community and through their own networks, by discussing them with family and friends (55 percent), or sharing in their social media networks (23 percent).

A informal poll of a Chinese Australian forum earlier this year found that only 15 percent of attendees supported AUKUS, with 22 percent undecided, and the remaining participants expressing strong opposition to the security pact.

This disconnect raises important questions about the long-term effects of the AUKUS agreement on social belonging in Australia.

What do we take from this study?

As this study show, defence and foreign policy can drive racism, and no matter how more nuanced a party might try to seem, it cannot alleviate its substantive harm.

As Australians concerned about AUKUS’ role in enabling Israel’s genocide, we are keenly aware of the harm of Labor’s doublespeak in confusing voters. Labor may be less overt but it is still advancing the same goal and strategy, just with different means and tactics.

In the past year, Australia has avoided sanctioning Israel due to its large AUKUS financial investments in companies like Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, and Rheinmetall Defence, which have been linked to human rights violations in Gaza. Lockheed alone received nearly $17 billion in taxpayer funds. In June 2024, the UN urged Australia to halt transfers to these companies destined for Israel. Sanctioning Israel would risk exposing Australia’s support for these companies.

The Albanese government has proudly announced these defence investments, despite their ties to military suppliers, including the US, which provides 69% of Israel’s military supplies. In August 2024, Defence Minister Richard Marles celebrated a new law removing export controls on US and UK defence exports, worth $5 billion annually. This policy increases Australia’s complicity in future military atrocities, jeopardising workers and entrenching the country’s support for US-Israeli military operations.

Common interests

Now is a ripe time for Muslim and Chinese members of the Australian community to engage in voter education.

Their voter numbers are significant and while Muslim voters are profoundly shaken and enlivened by the Palestinian genocide, both communities can educate about the perils of parties that offer painkillers with their pain.

We must also highlight the dangers posed by certain parties. These are the parties that run one carefully crafted narrative through their foreign affairs spokesperson while pushing a different one through defence channels. The same parties that, in the face of genocide, claim, “We know it’s traumatic, but we believe it’s better to work with the perpetrators behind the scenes rather than apply sanctions,” as Minister Wong conveyed on social media last week.

These parties present themselves as champions of the “sensible middle ground,” all while enabling atrocities to be committed against displaced, imprisoned families for over 13 months. There is no greater racism than failing to act against genocide. There is no greater racism than showing, through both word and deed, that for some people, there are no protections.

It isn’t normal or acceptable that such high levels of distrust or racism should exist towards people by virtue of the fact they are Chinese, Muslim or Palestinian.

Australian foreign and defence policy can no longer be written in total disregard for the communities that live here and their equal stake in this country.

Most of us with homelands overseas seek Australia to have an approach to the world that upholds the equal worth and dignity of all people, and doesn’t run point for US imperialism, nor ignore human rights abuses in China or anywhere else.

Both foreign policy and military experts have criticised AUKUS from an economic and strategic viewpoint, but mainstream media continues to sideline most of that criticism. The beauty of voter education is that it works outside mainstream media.

Community building

The Chinese and Afghan ancestors of this land have deep, enduring ties to it and gave birth to whole lines of families and history. Why so few of them are in the parliament? Why are $368 billion of our tax dollars paying for AUKUS? We are not in Europe or the U.S.

Building this culture of non-fear in an atmosphere that demands the opposite from us is a challenge, but is necessary.

We can all start by remembering that no group of people based on their race, religion, national or ethnic origin can be blamed for the crimes of another government or military; that we cannot be defined by geopolitics or make assumptions about political views.

Dehumanisation by any group is unacceptable, and Australia’s long history of dehumanisation, racism, White Australia policy, genocide through the Stolen Generations and Frontier Wars, and siding with western imperialism needs to be reckoned with.

Let us reconnect with who we truly are, beyond the influence of media and politics, to challenge the AUKUS frame that says some groups are simply expendable. No group is, and our vote combined can bring this message home, whether in this federal election or the next.

First published in the Australian Muslim Times on November 29, 2024.

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