Academic takes a swipe at anti-China rhetoric

A leading Chinese academic has warned Australia about its growing anti-China rhetoric.

A leading Chinese academic has warned that Australia is evoking “the ghost of Red Scare” in its growing anti-China rhetoric, which he warns could damage business ties with China.

In an article in the Communist Party-owned Global Times newspaper, Chen Hong, the director of the Australian Studies Centre at the East China Normal Univer­sity in Shanghai, warned there was a “renewed wave of anti-China hysteria” in Australia that he said was “aimed at increasing fear mongering and hatred towards China and Chinese business throughout the country”.

“The ignominious times of the Yellow Peril have not been seen Down Under for quite some time,” Chen wrote, “but the ghost of the Red Scare now hovers above.”

The article contrasts warnings by the Defence Department against employees using Chinese communication app WeChat with Scott Morrison’s recent move to open his own WeChat account to appeal to its 1.5 million users in Australia.

Chen described the reported ban by the Defence Department on its employees using WeChat as “ludicrous”. “WeChat, a popular app among Chinese, is a versatile and serviceable application in the mobile telecommunications age,” he said. “But it takes extreme imagination to concoct a theory where the app could be used to sabotage an election.”

He said the Prime Minister was “very wise” to use the effectiveness of WeChat to sell his policies to Chinese Australians.

The article was accompanied by a cartoon of an Australian koala looking in horror at a ­purple mobile phone, a clear reference to government moves to ban the use of technology by Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei for Australia’s next-­generation 5G network.

Chen also said media claims that Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo, whose Australian residency permit has reportedly been cancelled, was engaged in spying and unlawful political lobbying were unsubstantiated and “echoing fantasies from other Cold Warriors in the new age.”

He said many of the alle­gations against Mr Huang had been proven to be “implausible and groundless.”

“As anyone can plainly see, Huang has once again fallen victim to a renewed wave of anti-China hysteria,” he said.