Comments by "shazmosushi" (@shazmosushi) on "Where do the Overseas Chinese Live?" video.

  1. 7:35 The 750,000 figure you cite for Australia is those born in Hong Kong and mainland China, but there's actually ~1.2 million people with Chinese heritage. (EDIT: I see you're talking about 2011 figures -- you're probably correct on those numbers then). As many reading may know, like the United States, Australia has a long and storied history of anti-Asian racism -- from way back in the 1800s "gold rush" era to the present day. It was particularly pronounced during the 1990s with an anti-immigration 'One Nation Party' led by a woman named Pauline Hanson who made highly controversial statements like "I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate". Australia is widely considered an immigration success story, experiencing rapid population growth due to new migrants, but in the present day there's some growing issues. Most alarmingly it's been discovered that the Chinese Communist Party's political interference and infiltration bureau called the United Front Work Department is attempting to switch the allegiances of all ethnically Chinese people around the world -- regardless of their nationality and how little connection they have to China. In 2017, the then-head of China's security services (Meng Jianzhu) threatened Australian politicians that they would "instruct" the Chinese-Australian community to vote against one side of politics if they don't support passing a law (the Australia-China extradition treaty). Since then there's been many instances of Chinese government infiltration and intimidation against the Chinese-Australian community, and the broader society. It's very worrying the growing use of the term "ABC" (meaning American-Born Chinese or Australian-Born Chinese) that is often amplified by China's state media to refer to people who have lived their whole life in Australia or America who happen to be ethnically Chinese. This kind of thing is happening in all the Chinese diaspora communities around the world, but Australia just happens to be more aware of it. It will take a lot of effort to remove this political interference and infiltration, but it's obviously of utmost importance.
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  2. ​ @Asianometry  Right now the biggest legislative change is the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme's Public Register (transparency.ag.gov.au) where anybody working on behalf of a foreign power (including eg, people working for the Confucius institutes) are required to register. Also there has been somewhat controversial increased powers to the Australia's equivalent to the FBI that's meant to combat China's infiltration attempts. More sunlight on CCP influence is definitely a good thing. Also billionaire CCP-linked property developer Huang Xiaomo had his citizenship application rejected and barred from re-entering Australia after he was found to be bribing politicians to change their position on the South China Sea issue from "international law must be respected" to the CCP's position. Other than that, the Australian government has definitely changed its rhetorical stance on China and is pushing back MUCH harder (leading the world by calling for an inquiry into COVID even though that meant retaliation on our beef and barley exports). Recently a centrist senator named Rex Patrick called for a Chinese consulate to be closed given the risk to the local defence sector. This is a big change to how things used to be. Also for what it's worth, public opinion on China is at record lows since the interference was discovered (see the Pew research polls on China sentiment), so politicians are to some degree reflecting the public mood.
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  3. Just to clarify your wording, according to that video in the 1800s Australia had the larger Chinese immigrant population and it was New Zealand who didn't want the extra Chinese immigration. The video also mentions that New Zealand had negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with the indigenous Maori people and that federating under the Commonwealth of Australia would impact the treaty, which was the big issue around joining the new Australian federation. It's also worth noting that in 1901 (the year "federation" was completed making Australia a single unified nation), the Australia implemented the "White Australia policy" that banned immigration from most of the world. That was only dismantled in 1966 (which is actually very recently if you think about it), and in just 50 years Australia has become what many call the most successful multicultural nation in the world -- a melting pot of all the worlds people and cultures. Australia has its own fair share of racist government policies and citizen's views in the past and in the present (polices and views that also effect Australia's own indigenous people), but like Canada it's done alright job to integrate many millions of people from around the world into a cohesive nation. Just something worth noting in this discussion about Australia's race relation issues.
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