Opinion | As Canberra’s ties with Beijing come under pressure, Chinese-Australians are facing a new kind of discrimination

China-Australia relations are at their lowest point in years. And judging by recent events, such as Canberra banning Huawei and ZTE from taking part in the country’s 5G network, and preventing the former from building an undersea internet cable connecting the Solomon Islands, Beijing censoring the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website, and the growing strategic competition between the two sides in the Pacific, the relationship seems unlikely to improve any time soon.

As key stakeholders from both sides continue to engage in megaphone diplomacy and public rhetoric on geostrategic and geopolitical matters, Chinese-Australians have been caught in the crossfire and, as I have long feared, become collateral damage in an environment of poor relations.

I have witnessed and experienced first-hand over the past few years how the public debate on foreign influence, investment and interference in Australia has unintentionally and inadvertently created a new form of distrust, anxiety and suspicion towards China and all things ‘Chinese’, including Chinese-Australians.

In recent times, Australian academics, journalists and politicians have made allegations that immigrants of Chinese descent and Australians of Chinese heritage are working against the nation’s interests by holding direct secret allegiances to China. Even former Prime Minister John Howard joined the fray by warning that migrants from China, and to an extent Chinese-Australians, potentially pose a risk to Australia as they are susceptible to Chinese influence.

To claim that people have allegiance to China on the basis of their race and cultural heritage without an evidentiary base is deeply damaging to our reputation and leaves us open to further discrimination, vilification and the breaking down of trust.