China people and party ‘distinct’

Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles says there needs to be a ‘greater distinction’ in the national security debate between the Communist Party of China and Chinese-Australians.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: Reuters

Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles says there needs to be a “greater distinction” in the national security debate between the Communist Party of China and Chinese-Australians.

Mr Giles said Chinese-Australians suffered increased racism during the Covid-19 pandemic and were also concerned about some of the strident language used by foreign policy hawks.

“I’m really concerned about our need to support every member of this society and to be really clear in saying that in this country, everyone should feel that they belong,” he said.

“I’m concerned that, from time to time, we have not seen an appropriate distinction between legitimate criticisms of the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, and criticism of Chinese-Australians. We have seen racism on the increase ... and that’s something that I’ve been concerned about not only impacting on Chinese-Australians, but they really felt the brunt of it at the start of the pandemic.”

Mr Giles said the issue in no way meant the government would be cautious in criticising the Chinese government if it acted in a way that was against Australia’s national interest.

“But more broadly, we need to be able to separate two things: legitimate criticism of other countries, China, in our national interest and in the interests of the sort of world in which Australians would like to live in,” he said.

“And understand that needs to be kept distinct from preserving the freedoms, the liberties of every Australian.”

Mr Giles said Labor would unveil a national anti-racism strategy in this term of parliament.

As minister, “I’ve got to be ­absolutely resolute in standing up for a society in which there is no place for racism, that there is a zero tolerance for racism.”

Ahead of the last election, the Morrison government ramped up rhetoric on China in an ­attempt to convince the electorate Labor was soft on national ­security. This included Peter Dutton warning that Australia needed to prepare for war and Scott Morrison accusing deputy Labor leader Richard Marles of being a “Manchurian candidate”.

At the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, ALP national secretary Paul Erickson said the Coalition’s rhetoric on national security alienated Chinese-Australian voters. “The feedback that we got was that for Chinese-Australians there was a perception ... that the (former) government’s response to the more aggressive and assertive behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party and the government in Beijing came across in the community, at times, as an attack on Chinese Australians or rhetoric that licensed racism,” he said.