appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Wanning Sun

Australian media have significantly increased their reporting on China and Australian-Chinese communities in the past few years.
But how fair is that coverage? The Lowy Institute asked 2,000 Australians this question last year. In response, 61 per cent said it was “fair and balanced”, while 10 per cent of respondents said it was “too positive”. Only 26 per cent said it was “too negative”.
Lowy then asked Chinese-Australians the same question. In 2022, 42 per cent of Chinese-Australian respondents said Australian media reporting about China was “too negative”. By contrast, in the previous year’s poll, 57 per cent had said such reporting was “too negative”.
What accounts for the striking difference between the assessments of mainstream Australians and Chinese-Australians?
Australia should embrace ‘Pacific family’ and not just focus on China
Lowy’s survey of Chinese-Australians included individuals of various backgrounds: different histories and trajectories of migration, and countries of origin.
Australia’s 2021 census found just under 550,000 respondents were born in China. This makes up 2.2 per cent of the entire Australian population, with 227,414 (41 per cent) of these China-born individuals reporting Australian citizenship.
This raises another question: in what ways are people who have emigrated from China similar to, or different from, Chinese-Australians in general? And do they typically maintain closer ties with mainland China than other diasporic Chinese?
Our new research for the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney sought to answer these questions by conducting three focus groups, a quantitative survey of 689 respondents and 20 in-depth interviews.
Three broad questions were pursued:
(1) how Australia’s PRC migrants see themselves and their community portrayed in the media
(2) how they see the PRC portrayed in the media
(3) what impact they think such portrayals have on Australia’s general public.
The rationale behind this research is simple. Social cohesion is fundamental to our national interest, and research tells us the media play an important role in building social cohesion.


Interviewees generally expressed more trust in Australian media than in Chinese state media. Both focus group discussions and in-depth interviewees perceived a high level of professionalism in the Australian English-language media’s reporting on domestic issues. They acknowledged that Australia’s English-language media had different news values from Chinese state media, and so tended to adopt a critical stance on the issues they were covering.
At the same time, a substantial majority (78 per cent) of survey respondents believed that when Australia’s English-language media reported on Australia’s Chinese communities, they tended to lack balance, depth and independence.
Just over half (51 per cent) believed Australia’s English-language media were either “relatively distrustful” (42 per cent) or “completely distrustful” (9 per cent) of Australian-Chinese communities. Seven in 10 (70 per cent) believed the media tended to portray them, both collectively and individually, as objects of suspicion and risks to national security.
These findings point to a widespread feeling among respondents that their community is substantially more likely to be mistrusted, misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Australian English-language media now than in the past.
There was a widespread perception among survey respondents that Australian English-language media reporting on China-related issues had led to a low level of acceptance of their community by the Australian public. About six in 10 (63 per cent) respondents reported feelings of emotional and mental anguish in response to the media’s biased reporting.
As it mulls a partial ban, are Australia’s WeChat security fears ‘hysterical’?
Somewhat consistent with Lowy’s surveys of Chinese-Australians, more than half of survey respondents (53 per cent) believed Australian English-language reporting on the PRC had been “too negative”.
Interviewees emphasised they did not have a problem with “negative” news about China. However, they frequently perceived a particular news-making agenda in Australian English-language media that frames Beijing and Chinese-Australians as hostile entities.
This in turn has posed serious challenges for China migrants in their efforts to be accepted into Australian society.
Most survey respondents (58 per cent) believed they were better informed about China than both Australia’s English-speaking public and the Chinese public living in China. This in turn made them feel better positioned than either group to assess the accuracy of the Australia’s media reporting on Beijing. They were also acutely aware of the widespread public perception that they had been “brainwashed” by China propaganda.
Around six in 10 (63 per cent) reported feelings of powerlessness in relation to having their voices heard by the media. While 14 per cent reported having lodged complaints about media reporting by writing either to politicians (8 per cent) or the media (6 per cent), most reported they tended to process such daily feelings by airing them within their own community and through their own networks. This might mean discussing them with family and friends (55 per cent) or sharing in their social media networks (23 per cent).
There was a high level of ambivalence and uncertainty towards both Australia and China when questions about belonging were discussed.

On the one hand, respondents seemed to remain strongly committed to making Australia home. Compared with five years ago, one in three (33 per cent) reported no change in their sense of belonging. Another 38 per cent reported a stronger sense of belonging. Another 10 per cent reported having a substantially reduced sense of belonging to Australia, while only 2 per cent said they no longer had any sense of belonging.
On the other hand, 46 per cent of respondents either strongly agreed (17 per cent) or were inclined to agree (29 per cent) that reading media stories about the “China threat” had diminished their sense of belonging to mainstream Australian society.
An overwhelming majority of respondents (91 per cent) were concerned by the Australian English-language media’s tendency to engage in speculation about war with China. This was primarily because they believed such speculation could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They were equally concerned about how Chinese-Australians would be treated if Australia found itself at war with the PRC.
Given that social cohesion and inclusiveness are crucial to national interest, these findings offer an important insight into Australia’s bid for social cohesion. They may also ask questions of Australia’s media in regard to their role in promoting or damaging that cohesion.
Wanning Sun is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. This article was first published by The Conversation.



Foreign chambers back Hong Kong 5-year plan, urge progress on Northern Metropolis

Southeast Asia supports multilateralism, wary of US or China leadership: survey

Will Anwar’s coalition in Malaysia implode amid Loke exit, Najib house arrest?

Why China is weighing into the debate on how to respond to shrinking coastlines

Australia

Australia media reporting on China ‘too negative’, ‘distrustful’ of Chinese-Australians: survey

People walk down the main street of Chinatown in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Shutterstock 

Chinese migrants in Australia protest against a policy on investment visa in Sydney on June 16, 2023. Photo: Reuters 

Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong meets with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in New Delhi on March 2, 2023. Photo: Xinhua

Australia should offer ‘Pacific family’ visa access and not react whack-a-mole to China moves

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) greets Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Suva on July 13, 2022. Photo: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Beijing on July 10. Photo: cnsphoto via Reuters 

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (R) addresses the Papua New Guinea Parliament in Port Moresby on January 12, 2023. Photo: AFP 

South China Sea: as Australia strengthens ties with the Philippines, it’s wading even further into dangerous waters

Australian and Filipino Forces participating in a large-scale combined amphibious assault exercise on August 25. Philippine DND Defense Communications Service and AFP Public Affairs Office via AP

Philippine soldiers take position on a beach during a joint exercise between Australian and Philippine troops at a naval base on August 25. Photo: AFP

Australian and Filipino troops held exercises on August 25 near flashpoint South China Sea waters claimed by China. Photo: AFP

Australia’s Aukus deal safe for now, but split within Labor reveals ‘grave problems ahead’

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left), with US President Joe Biden and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during an Aukus event in San Diego, California in March 2023. Photo: AP

Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles. Photo: EPA-EFE

Two Australian Collins class submarines at HMAS Stirling Royal Australian Navy base in Perth, Western Australia. Photo: EPA-EFE

Australia’s Albanese calls on China to free jailed journalist Cheng Lei: ‘3 years too long’

Australian journalist Cheng Lei. File photo: AP

Australia’s bid to become a ‘multilateral player’ in Indo-Pacific at risk over lack of funding

Australian soldiers load supplies onto HMAS Adelaide at the Port of Brisbane before departing for Tonga in January 2022, after a volcano eruption. Photo: Australia Defence Force via AP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo: EPA-EFE

Australian officials carry boxes containing doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Port Moresby international airport in Papua New Guinea in March 2021. Photo: AFP

This Week in Asia

Opinion

A majority of Australian-Chinese think local media portrays them as ‘distrustful’ and posing risks to national security, according to a survey
They believe Australian media’s reporting on China has led to low acceptance of their community by the Australian public


Many Australian-Chinese think Australian media portrays them as “distrustful” and its reporting on China as “too negative”.


China-Australia relations

Chinese overseas

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)
