Chinese Australians ask ‘why is the government picking on us?’ after landmark survey
- Australia’s Home Affairs Department commissioned a survey that asked ethnic Chinese respondents about democracy, politics and the CCP
- Academics and community leaders say the poll, done by the Lowy Institute, has loaded questions and lumps the community into a ‘monolithic whole’
Yu, who has conducted extensive studies of the Chinese diaspora and Chinese social media, said many questions in the 33 areas surveyed, including sense of belonging and views on political models, were “misleading and loaded”.
She cited a question asking respondents to pick which of three statements came closest to their own personal views about democracy. The options were “Democracy is preferable to any other kind of government”; “In some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable” and “For someone like me, it doesn’t matter what kind of government we have”. Respondents could also refuse to answer or say they did not know which one to pick.
But Yu said the question underlined the assumption that western democracy was good “and therefore other kinds of political models must not be good”. It was akin to being asked a loaded question like “Have you stopped beating up your wife?”, she said.
“So it is difficult for people to make a choice … it does not leave room for ambiguity, as people can be supportive of [Western] democracy while recognising the authoritarian efficiency of a non-democratic government like China’s ‘in some circumstances’ such as controlling the pandemic,” she said.
Yu also pointed to questions about news sources. Respondents, who were interviewed in English and Mandarin either online or over the phone, were asked whether they used WeChat to get English-language and Chinese-language news. Some 64 per cent said they often or sometimes did and 84 per cent said the same respectively.