Australia seems to think it can outsleep the sleeping giant. If only that were true

Like almost 600,000 other Australians, I was born in China. Despite having lived here for 15 years, as a dissident, I am still tracked and harassed by the Chinese government. I want to offer a warning to our government and my fellow citizens about our relationship with the Asian superpower.

China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, told Australia’s National Press Club on Tuesday that Australia and China are “friends, not foes”. But friends are people who share common values. The truth is there is a fundamental ideological divide between our two nations, and what we value. China’s ambitions are not merely defensive, but rather aggressively expansionist. Currently, in the face of this fundamental difference, Australia still clings stubbornly to its engagement policy with China, in political, economic and social spheres.

Artist and Age cartoonist Badiucao.Credit: Simon Schluter

The government’s initial objective of this policy was to influence China through exchange and dialogue in an attempt to help open up its politics and its economy, and push it towards greater democracy and adherence to international law. The hope was that this would bridge the gap between the two countries’ political systems and ideologies, preventing conflict and ensuring peace. At the same time, Australia’s economy would benefit from the further liberalisation of China’s market.

However, China’s decades of military expansion and diplomatic coercion show the policy has failed. Human rights have deteriorated further, with crackdowns in Hong Kong, and internment camps and the genocide of the Uyghur population and other minorities in Xinjiang.

Politically, China has slid into outright dictatorship since Xi Jinping amended the constitution to increase his power, and diplomatically, it has never abandoned its “wolf warrior” stance – a combative approach in which critics of China’s government and the Chinese Communist Party are aggressively denounced. Australians imprisoned in China, such as Yang Hengjun, face death sentences, and Chinese-Australian dissidents like myself are constantly harassed and threatened, even on Australian soil.

Militarily, China poses a threat to Australia’s national interests and security through its actions in Taiwan and the South China Sea.

On the economic front, China is facing unprecedented challenges: a sharply shrinking labour population, slumping consumption, an ever-expanding local government debt crisis, a real estate market in disarray, and a teetering stock market. Although China has gradually lifted its previous bans on Australian products, in such a sluggish market, how much can Australia realistically hope to gain from this crumbling giant? A rush to re-engage with the Chinese market risks luring Australian business owners into a new trap.

So why, despite its failures, has Australia persisted with its policy? Why is there no critical reflection, and why have no alternatives been proposed or adopted?

It seems this policy has become an addiction; a habit shared by both major parties. When a policy that once served as a tool for national interest transforms into decades of inertia, laziness takes the place of thought and the fear of change grows. The original means becomes an end in itself, turning into an untouchable dogma, where any challenge to it is labelled as “extreme”. Evaluations of this policy are dismissed with the belief that “just a little more time” will solve the problem, as if Australia can out-sleep the sleeping giant.

Unfortunately, Australia’s three-year election cycles fuel short-term thinking among Australian politicians, and China’s control and infiltration of the Australian Chinese community can affect elections here. The Chinese government controls and monopolises Chinese-language media in Australia, and platforms like WeChat, for example, extend its reach and censorship into every corner of the lives of the Chinese diaspora, even long after they have left their home country.

At the same time, Chinese-Australians with independent views face the threat of marginalisation within their own community, which further erodes their voice in public life.

The result? A politically mute and silenced community, and both Labor and the Coalition believing that if they want to win Chinese-Australian votes, they must refrain from criticising China and double down on the engagement policy. This is a narrow view of the Chinese-Australian community.

Meanwhile, Australia’s China scholars have been compromised by vested interests. Through its engagement policy and funding, China has come to exert tremendous influence over our universities. The appeasement of China’s regime by Australian sinologists shows that academic independence is more fragile than we might imagine.

China can pressure Australian academics through visas, grants and other benefits, pushing them into self-censorship. Without access to fieldwork in China, research into Chinese society and culture faces immense hurdles.

If Australia is to truly recognise and respond to the threat posed by China, it must reassess the utility of its policy, swiftly. This will require adjusting the weight placed on it, or even discarding it altogether. A new diplomatic strategy is urgently needed – before it’s too late.

Badiucao is an artist, a Chinese dissident and a cartoonist at The Age. Discover more about his life and art in The Age’s interactive feature, which was published in print in Good Weekend.