National investment in China studies needed to lift expertise

University of Sydney China Studies Centre director David Goodman calls for more courses on China at Australian universities.

Britain's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and his visiting Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, in Britain last February. Mr Cleverly has said it is ‘vital that our diplomats and civil servants have the understanding and expertise to engage and adapt to the increasing challenge posed by China and China’s growing role in world affairs’. Picture: AFP

University of Sydney China Studies Centre director David Goodman has called for a national strategy to encourage China studies at Australian universities.

In an interview with The Australian, he called on the federal government to set up a committee of inquiry including academics, representatives of universities, business, government and the Chinese community in Australia to address the significant decline in Australia’s China capacity at the tertiary level.

He said a report released last month by the Australian Academy of the Humanities had highlighted the sharp decline in the knowledge capacity of Australian universities about China since a peak in the early 2000s.

“China studies in Australia have run down and centres of China learning have been closed,” Professor Goodman said.

Declining capacity had come at a time when China was by far Australia’s largest trading partner, the country was becoming an increasingly important strategic player in the region and 5.5 per cent of the Australian population had a Chinese background.

“The Albanese government needs to take a leaf out of the playbook of the Hawke government in the 1980s which set up an Asian studies council to encourage the development of Asian studies as a national priority,” Professor Goodman said.

“The council did an audit of Asian languages and studies in Australia and identified where the gaps were and what needed to happen. They lobbied for money (for new programs) and they got it.”

He said this was what was needed to encourage the revival of China studies in Australia.

Professor Goodman said the British government recently had announced plans to increase funding to boost the skills and knowledge of staff and public servants about China, including more Chinese language training.

Announcing the move, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was “vital that our diplomats and civil servants have the understanding and expertise to engage and adapt to the increasing challenge posed by China and China’s growing role in world affairs”.

Professor Goodman said more funding was needed for Chinese studies at Australian universities as well as a change in rhetoric on the importance of understanding more about the country.

He said there was a danger in Australia that the rise of the “China threat” scenario in recent years was discouraging students and academics from an interest in China studies when Australia needed to invest more in understanding of China.

“It is almost as if the mantra has developed that anyone with a China competence is suspect,” he said. There was now a suspicion by government agencies about any research by universities about China.

But he said while China might be “on the nose” at the moment with politicians and defence officials, universities needed to defend their China-related teaching and research.

There was a need for a broad study in Australia about what was going on in China including areas such as health, science and technology, and environmental sustainability as well as its history, business, and politics.

He said Australia needed to build on its economic and social relations with China. “We need to move beyond hostility about China to understand that whatever happens, China will still be there and we will still have to deal with it,” he said.