Anger at speech over anti-China racism

Australian senator publicly thanks Chinese for ‘putting up with’ prejudice

With two weeks before Australia’s May 21 federal election, the issue of anti-Chinese racism has remained a major talking point in a campaign that has seen Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s coalition face criticism for using China as a bogeyman to woo voters.

In the latest development, some Chinese-Australians have slammed a senator from the ruling coalition after he thanked them for “putting up with racism”. Some said Liberal senator Andrew Bragg’s remarks at a public discussion on Friday showed how out of touch and condescending the government was on racism.

At the Sydney event, Bragg acknowledged there had been serious cases of racism toward Chinese-Australians during the pandemic and amid the continuing deterioration in Canberra’s ties with Beijing.

The ruling Liberal/National Party coalition has denied Australia was unsafe due to racism, which has increased during the pandemic. But Beijing has since 2020 warned students about studying in Australia following multiple instances of overt racism towards Chinese nationals.

“Thank you for your steadfastness, thank you for putting up with some intemperate rhetoric at times, thank you for putting up with racism at times … it’s not good enough,” Bragg said.

“Australia’s bilateral relations with China have nothing to do with the Chinese people and certainly nothing to do with the Chinese-Australian diaspora.”

He reiterated the Morrison government’s commitment to protect minority groups and regretted the administration’s “at times unsophisticated” rhetoric about China.

The government has been drumming up talk of “war” with China since relations soured in 2020 following its push for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus without consulting Beijing.

That year another government senator, Eric Abetz, led a McCarthyist-style campaign against three Chinese-Australians after demanding they condemn the Chinese Communist Party at a parliamentary inquiry.

New South Wales state parliament Greens MP Jenny Leong, who also attended the panel, said the whole coalition government was out of touch on the issue of racism. “To hear Senator Bragg attempting to distance himself from the racist comments and the actions of his colleagues, while at the same time seeming to present racism as something inevitable that he thanks us for putting up with, was insulting and offensive,” Leong said.

Also taking part in the debate were Mark Dreyfus, a former attorney general with the opposition Labor Party, and Adam Bandt of the Greens. Independent Kylea Tink was expected to attend but had to isolate due to Covid-19.

Dreyfus said in contrast to the incumbents, Labor had always fought racism. He underscored his party’s efforts in fighting the Coaltion’s attempts to roll back protections against racism.

He also called out the Morrison government for using racism for politics after criticising public challenges to Liberal MP Gladys Liu’s links to the Chinese government as “racist”.

Bandt, the Greens leader, said he and his party rejected “in the strongest possible terms” political rhetoric by the government “to beat the drums of war”. These were tactics used by the Morrison administration to distract Australia from more important issues such as climate change, he said.

“With the government desperate to win votes, they resort to racism and hysteria … the impact of that is felt predominately by the Chinese community,” Bandt said.

Tense relations with China – which in part sparked racism and suspicion of the Chinese community – climate change, and the poor representation of Chinese Australians in Australian politics, dominated Friday’s discussion. The Chinese and Asian-Australian diaspora represents about 14 per cent of Australia’s population.

The ruling coalition in recent weeks has stepped up hawkish comments about China, with its candidates raising concerns about Beijing’s assertiveness in the region and the recent security pact with the Solomon Islands.

When questioned how the opposition party would go about “normalising relations with China” if it was elected, Dreyfus called for better diplomacy and said there were avenues for China and Australia to improve ties, particularly through common issues such as climate change.

He suggested statements about China made by the likes of Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton were aimed at wooing domestic support and that in contrast he was “more interested in diplomacy, a bit more strategy and a bit less domestic politics”.

The Coalition comments were “the last thing you want to be saying if you were behaving as an adult in the international world of diplomacy”, Dreyfus said.