Over the past two decades, Australia has struggled to attract Chinese immigrants, so much so that the Australian Immigration Service has used numbers such as 188,888 to attract Chinese investment migrants to cater to Chinese investment migrants.
In addition, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics,
As of 2018, the total Chinese population in Australia stood at more than 1.2 million, or 3.9 percent of the population, up 40 percent from eight hundred and sixty thousand in 2011.
It can be said that with the growth of the number of Chinese in Australia, the influence of Chinese in Australia is growing.
But a recent review of the essay chapter, published by < South China Moring Post >, has sparked heated discussion in the Chinese community.
According to the commentator-Jieh-Yung Lo, relations between China and Australia are at a freezing point, and Chinese Australians are becoming victims and facing new misunderstandings from Australia.
What is this new misunderstanding? What should Australia's government do in the face of this situation? And what will Chinese people in Australia do?
Note: Jieh-Yung Lo is a Chinese-Australian writer and policy advise
01. As Sino-Australian relations become increasingly tense, Chinese Australians will face new misunderstandings.
According to Jieh-Yung Lo, the relationship between China and Australia has been at its lowest point in recent years.
First, he cited several recent hot spots, including Australia's government ban on Huawei and ZTE's 5g network, and Huawei's ability to build submarine Internet cables connected to Solomon Islands. And China's government blocked the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's website.
He said relations between China and Australia seem unlikely to improve in the short term as strategic competition between the two sides in the Pacific becomes increasingly fierce.
Chinese in Australia are suffering new misunderstandings
In addition, Jieh-Yung Lo said Chinese in Australia are slowly suffering collateral damage as China and Australia continue to fight over geopolitical and geo-strategic issues, and the gunpowder is so strong that Chinese in Australia are slowly suffering collateral damage.
These include Australians' distrust, anxiety and suspicion of "China-related" people, which can also be described as a new misunderstanding of Chinese Australians.
He also said Australian scholars, politicians and journalists have been accusing Chinese immigrants and Australians of Chinese descent secretly of doing something harmful to Australia in their allegiance to China.
Even former Prime Minister Howard joined the debate, warning that immigrants from China and Chinese Australians' vulnerability to China could pose a risk to Australia.
"this new misunderstanding has had a negative impact on the lives of Chinese Australians, especially in terms of job hunting. As a result of this additional distrust and suspicion, it is more difficult for Chinese Australians to gain access to senior management with greater authority, influence and authority in the workplace. " He said。
New forms of against China emotion
Subsequently, Jieh-Yung Lo believes that this kind of statement, which claims allegiance to China on the basis of race and culture alone, in the absence of any evidence basis, is not only deeply damaging to the reputation of Chinese Australians. It has also led to further misunderstandings, stigmatization and collapse of trust in the Australian community towards Chinese Australians.
"in addition, any reasonable, rational approach to China is seen as" weak "and the only way to prove" Australian identity "is to publicly condemn China." He said.
"the extremes of the issue, public debate, and concerns about being labelled 'pro-China' or 'Chinese sympathizers' have made many Chinese Australians afraid to express their views publicly."
This is also known as a new form of against China emotion.
Australia's government needs to make a positive statement
At the end of the article, Jieh-Yung Lo said that in order to prevent the expansion of this new form of against China sentiment, Australian government needs to provide assurances to Chinese Australians. It is clear that the vast majority of Chinese living in Australia and Chinese Australians are members of Australia. First, leaders need to condemn racism and discrimination in the public sphere;
Secondly, new attitudes and methods must be adopted to avoid the use of racial politics;
Third, we must recognize the contribution of Chinese Australians to Australia, and recognize that the skills, experience and leadership of Chinese Australians can help Australia to improve its understanding of China and establish closer relations with China.
Fourth, more Chinese Australians should be welcomed and encouraged to become leaders in government, business, media and academia.
Fifthly, efforts must be made to repair bilateral relations between China and Australia.
In fact, Chinese in Australia are actively through their own actions, integration into the Australian family.
02. In the face of new misunderstandings, the vast majority of Chinese in Australia in a variety of ways to correct their name.
In the face of serious natural disasters, Chinese in Australia to help Australia together to tide over the difficulties.
I believe all of you know through a variety of channels that the Australian state of New South Wales suffered the worst drought in its history earlier this year.
(bony kangaroo body)
(bony sheep)
(cattle surrounded by the last heap of grass)
In the face of this situation, in order to help Australia through this difficult situation, the vast Chinese community, groups and companies have contributed their part.
Many Chinese in Australia, enterprises and organizations respond positively. Some foreign students will earn money from their own work to donate to the disaster area, to express their feelings. About A $25,000 has been donated by more than 200 Chinese organizations and individuals through various donor agencies, according to the Australian Emergency Aid Association, a Chinese group.
This also reflects the Australian Chinese as an integral part of the Australian community, dare to assume social responsibility, live in Australia, integrated into Australia, dedication to Australia spirit!
Strawberry unmarketable, fruit farmers living hard, Chinese in Australia actively buy, to tide over the difficulties.
In recent days, nearly all of the Australian media have been brushed with strawberry needles in Australia, consumers are in a panic, and there are calls for caution in purchasing strawberries.
However, this incident has a great impact on the hard-working and innocent fruit growers. Fruit growers' hard-growing strawberries were forced to be destroyed in situ because of sluggish sales and falling prices of strawberries. Many farmers also had to lay off workers and destroy fruit trees.
Faced with the situation, the Australian website sent a tweet on Wednesday encouraging consumers to buy strawberries to help Australian fruit farmers tide over the storm. This tweet received a positive response from the vast number of Chinese in Australia, and many of their friends said they would go to buy strawberries:
"to support the farmers, my recipe these days is strawberries, strawberries!"
"be sure to help the farmers through the difficulties and go to the supermarket tomorrow to buy strawberry coke and apples."
"I'm going to buy strawberries tonight!"
"go after work and buy it!"
All of these actions show that both Chinese in Australia and Chinese Australians are contributing to Australia through their own efforts and are actively integrated into Australian society.
03. Editor's conclusion
As relations between China and Australia become more and more complex, Australia's government should clearly recognize that Chinese in Australia are also an important part of Australia because we are also contributing to Australia through our own efforts.
At the same time, the editor also hopes that Chinese in Australia can be fearless and brave to resist in the face of unfounded discrimination and misunderstanding!