Silent counterattack

The discontentment of Chinese migrants toward political party policies in Australia has eventually been demonstrated through their voting in the previous two elections.

The voices neglected in mainstream media in Australia have instead conducted large-scale operations using social media platforms in their home language and offered different voices from those heard previously.

The report that Chinese warships came near Australian waters for the first time this February became evidence that current international diplomatic relations between the Australian government and China have entered a new phase. Something new is occurring in Australia at the same time. It is surprising that Chinese voters have adopted an entirely different stance in this election compared to previously.

 

The Attitude From the East

“I do not want to vote for either political party.”

This is the most often used sentence I have heard from the interviewees. The candidates elected by Labour and Liberal Parties failed to get the majority support of Chinese people.

“Forced voting could be the most significant reasons I vote” a newlywed couple said.

 

The Chinese immigrants are greatly disappointed with this situation. The failure in carrying out economic policies under the Labor Party or the inimical nature of the Liberal Party toward Chinese immigrants has created a situation where Chinese immigrants feel dissatisfied with the government in Australia.

Indeed, in comparison with their own election choices in the overall election, Chinese voters would have a stronger feeling of novelty for having the right to vote.

 In the media, it has been prevalent for people to go cast their votes enthusiastically in a video’s contents.  For example, during March, content posted on the ABC website explicitly portrayed Chinese immigrants’ elation upon their first exercise of the voting right.

Surprisingly, this voter did not express his political leaning during the entire video, which does not usually happen for other voters.

 

Although Scott Yung distributed his photographs everywhere throughout the major communities where Chinese reside, in mainstream media in Australia, aside from a few statistics following an election, news about the sentiment of Chinese people toward an election is rather few and far between.

 

Still, because voters will follow a forced mechanism, voters need to take responsibility for their right to vote. Chinese immigrants therefore still need to have their own choices to make.

Or, from another view, are Chinese voters absolutely without political needs of their own?

 

Red Note

With the growth of Internet technology, particularly popularizing 5G technology in China, has led China’s social media apps into the upstream of technology advancement. From either the world’s popularity of TikTok or Tencent’s investment in traditional media like movies and TV dramas, Chinese Internet giants’ impact keeps growing continuously.

Red Note, which is a social network developed by a Chinese firm, consisting largely of UGC videos and images, has acquired a significant number of overseas student users from Chinese backgrounds. Naturally, it has been one of the prime social networks utilized by overseas Chinese or Chinese enthusiasts.

On Red Note, outside the battlefield of mainstream media in Australia, there’s an ongoing battle for the 2025 general election in Australia.

As already stated in this report, both the Liberal and Labor Parties respectively invested part of their time in using Chinese social media platforms. Among them, Red Note, similar to WeChat, has garnered comparatively more political advertising interest.

 

 

The debate between the two contenders is a hot discussion topic on Red Note.

Apart from all those usual regular issues like economic policies, improving houses, overseas policies and immigration policies that people mainly worry about, attitudes toward overseas students are also a hot discussion topic on Red Note.

 

 

Even in the discussion forum for every prime ministerial election debate, Chinese immigrants would present their own opinion here and there in the comment section.

These are two scenarios which are absolutely opposite to the perception that Chinese people are not interested in politics whatsoever.

 

The Transformation Of Attitude

With the results of the 2025 Australian general election announced, the Labor Party has been granted another term to fulfil their political promises.

In the post of red note, the support for the Labour Party was almost overwhelming. Dutton, as the candidate of the Liberal Party, did not gain the trust of the majority of Chinese voters.

Especially after Dutton’s defeat in the general election and losing his seat as a member of parliament in his own constituency, he was ridiculed by Chinese voters.

The decline of the Liberal Party in the Chinese community was predictable. In the last election, several Chinese constituencies had already begun to show friendliness towards the Labor Party.

 

 

In the main communities where Chinese people live, from 5.7% to 18.4% of the election ballots flowed to the Labor Party.

This is strongly related to the unfriendly policies and attitudes of the previous Liberal government’s prime minister, Morrison, towards the Chinese government during the pandemic.

The failure of economic policies and the change in relations with the Chinese government have become the main reasons for Chinese people to change their political leanings. Of course, discrimination against China after the COVID-19 pandemic is also one of the main reasons.

Among the numerous interviewees, the friendliness towards the policies of the Chinese government and immigrants is also one of the aspects they express that they need to pay attention to.

 

“The unfriendliness towards China makes us feel insecure,”  said by an interviewee.

Moreover, Dutton’s shift in different views on the same event during the election process and his ignorance of certain matters lost the last filter that Chinese voters used for the Liberal Party, such as the three-dollar egg and the home-buying conditions for young people.

Overall, the significance of Chinese voters has been reflected in the results of the last two general elections. With the continuous improvement of China’s international status, the attitude of the Australian government towards China has become one of the decisive factors in obtaining votes.