I’m not sure how we’re supposed to discuss our future when this happens. At Domain:
Senator Andrew Bragg has denounced as “degrading and regrettable” calls for Chinese Australians to pledge their loyalty, adding to the controversy that embroiled his Liberal Party colleague Eric Abetz.
Senator Abetz declined to apologise for remarks at a Senate inquiry last week when he asked three witnesses with Chinese-Australian heritage to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party.
Does Eric Abetz unequivocally condemn Uncle Otto for being a prominent Nazi? Does the Coalition unequivocally condemn the CCP when Gladys Liu holds the balance of power for it?
Cheap shots and race-baiting are easy. What is harder is debating a sensitive discussion rationally. The issues surrounding ethnic Chinese Australians are complex. As Australia muscles up into the great decoupling there will rightly be questions about Chinese immigration but how they are handled will determine all outcomes:
- There are 1.2m Australians with Chinese ancestry. Sadly for them, the CCP claims their allegiance whether they like it or not. It is the CCP that makes it about race, not Australia.
- For some, with relatives in China, the CCP claim over their lives is given force by the abuse of family on the mainland.
- As we head towards war in Taiwan (however that is expressed), as well as possible wider North Asian conflicts, not to mention ever more aggressive attempts by the CCP to influence Australian domestic politics, it’s pretty obvious that it would be unwise to grow the Australian Chinese expatriate community, both for the nation and their own good.
- After all, we already have one CCP agent in the Government in Gladys Liu. If we were to continue growing the expatriate Chinese community then it is likely that others will follow. In a closely divided polity, it doesn’t take many CCP sympathetic electorates to own the Australian Parliament.
- Then again, Australians of ethnic Chinese origins have every right to be pissed about being singled out for reduced immigration, doubts about their loyalty or patriotism.
- If all of these conflicting questions are handled badly then they raise the specter of extreme outcomes like civil unrest or internments as geopolitical conditions deteriorate.
The answers are not simple, either. My preferred outcomes are:
- slash all immigration not just ethnic Chinese;
- ban WeChat and enforce local ownership of Chinese language media;
- keep the local Chinese community on board with close links to security agencies (much like we did with Islamic terrorism) so that they give up toxic CCP agents in their midst;
- decouple more broadly to ensure coercive power is mitigated.
Most importantly, avoid singling out people on the basis of race. Chinese peoples are the victims of the CCP more than the rest of us. Where race takes center-stage, the CCP flourishes by dividing and conquering ethnic Chinese from their home countries.
Anybody home, Eric?
