Media Statement

The Australia-China Friendship Society condemns racism in all forms. In particular, it condemns the long tradition of racism against Chinese, including Australian Chinese. Unfortunately, this still exists in Australia, as shown vividly by a shocking incident reported in the Brisbane Times on 27 April. The report said that on ANZAC Day at Newstead a 69-year-old Brisbane man physically attacked and insulted a Korean couple believing them to be Chinese. He was eventually restrained with great difficulty and fined not for racism but for public nuisance.

We believe that government policy does nothing to resist this Sinophobia and in some ways even promotes it. Policy on China appears to us to isolate China as an enemy to be feared. We see this in AUKUS, which wants to promote cooperation with the Anglopowers USA and UK to buy nuclear-powered submarines, apparently targeted against China. This encourages Australians to regard ordinary Chinese people as security threats, and indirectly promotes anti-Chinese racism. We believe it is totally unnecessary to buy nuclear-powered submarines that directly threaten the Chinese mainland. We are unaware of any substantial evidence that China poses a security threat to us in Australia.

On 6 May, the Sydney Morning Herald’s education writer Christopher Harris wrote that “The Department of Defence has warned universities that international students pose a potential security risk, exposing campus systems to potential foreign interference”. That tells us that a government department itself is promoting the idea that international students, including Chinese, could be a security threat.

The Australia-China Friendship Society believes such an idea to be not only monstrously unfair and discriminatory but also racist. It is also economically irrational, given how much international students contribute to the universities economically.

The ACFS calls for an end to the current wave of Sinophobia and for an end to anti-Chinese racism in all its forms.