IWhen Mark Wang's father, who worked in Chinese military intelligence, left Shanghai to meet with us at Douglas MacArthur in Melbourne, Australia, the king entered World War II. Since China does not have a working consulate in the city, they chose to talk at the home of a famous local businessman whose family first immigrated from China in the mid-1830s. Between discussions on how best to expel axial force from China, his master's beautiful daughter caught Mr. Wang's eyes.

“It’s love at first sight,” Mark Wang, CEO of Melbourne’s Chinese Museum of Australian History, said at his parents’ first meeting. "That's why I'm here!"

This is a sweet anecdote and also illustrates how the fate of Australia, China and even the United States is intertwined. Although Australia has been inhabited by Aboriginals for at least 65,000 years, the first European settlers arrived in 1788, and just 30 years later, the first Chinese arrived. This was not always a harmonious integration with the regular racial riots reaching the 1901 White Australian policy, which effectively ceased legal immigration from Asia to the self-styled "lucky country". After the policy was abolished in 1975, Chinese immigrants disappeared and moved, corresponding to various crises of the Vietnam War, the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the recent crackdown on Hong Kong's freedoms. Today, people with Chinese heritage account for about 5.5% of Australia's 26 million people.

"The Chinese-Australian community is a major contributor to our cultural life, economy, business, and all aspects," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a February interview. "Chinese Australians have always been a big part of our multicultural community."

As Saturday's federal election approaches, they may prove that the future with Australia is crucial. The polls have put Albanese's center-left Labor Party with the opposition right-leaning Liberal National Alliance's neck and neck, and observers believe an open parliament - in this case no political party can reach the 76 seats needed to form the government, which may be a possible outcome.

The tight game has led to a surge in political advertising and campaigns targeting fringe, multicultural constituencies in recent weeks in popular and well-known Chinese apps (such as WeChat and red notes). Since January, the project has found more than 220 authorized free advertisements on WeChat, with about 35 labor. Even non-ethnic Chinese candidates support the platform, sharing videos of themselves eating hot Sichuan dishes and drinking bubble tea.

University of Melbourne researcher Fan Yang said campaign positions are often refined and tailored with the help of external agencies. "Red notes are known for their lifestyle and e-commerce, which means that platform algorithms do not give much priority to political content," she said. "One way for politicians to navigate algorithms is to connect with third-party influencers to increase their online visibility."

The fact that certain ethnic groups that make up the highest proportion of Chinese voters is also the closest struggle is inciting this strategy. Bennelong's Sydney seat, which is managed by the workforce, has about 30% of Chinese heritage residents and is now conceptually free due to the re-demarcation of the border. According to Recapture, freelance candidate Scott Yung has appeared in over 100 authorized ads since January. Meanwhile, Sydney's Bradfield constituency is the fifth largest population of Chinese voters nationwide and has been flooded with WeChat ads among candidates and independents from both major political parties. Ads on attacks against leaders on both sides have spread as the election approaches.

Nevertheless, the brave proposal of Chinese Australians who recently enjoyed Chinese meals on the campaign - Albanians and alliance leader Peter Dutton was recently photographed, a welcome distance from the last federal election in Australia in 2022, when anti-drug sentiments unfortunately reached a severe cold in the Sino-Soviet car parks and a cold in Sino-Soviet car park relations and a cold in Sino-Soviet transport relations. According to a 2021 report by the Lowy Institute, almost one in five Australians reported physically threatened or attacked the previous year.

The pandemic marked a gradual approach, but has been building anti-China paranoia since around 2016, when Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull ordered an investigation into alleged CCP intervention, leading to the second year of the espionage and foreign intervention bill. Subsequently, a series of senior local and national politicians were accused of being paid by the Chinese government. Local community members say that the terror votes in the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose subsequent railings against the “Chinese virus” and “kung fu flu” also helped normalize anti-Asian sentiment.

In October 2020, liberal senator Eric Abetz asked three Chinese Australians to call in front of the chamber of commerce to discuss the underrepresentation of the non-white parliament "whether they are willing to unconditionally condemn the Chinese Communist dictatorship" in order to condemn one of the participants' loyalty tests that were subsequently condemned as the "McCarters."

Of course, anti-Chinese sentiment can be traced back to the gold rush in Australia. In 1855, Victoria imposed a levy of £10 on every Chinese immigrant who arrived in the colony. To avoid this "voting tax", many Chinese immigrants landed in South Australia and then walked 350 miles to Melbourne, which soon became the world's richest city behind the mining boom.

In 2017, Jimmy Li, chairman of the Australian Chinese Community Council Victoria Chapter (CCCAV), helped organize this epic journey to raise awareness of historical injustice. “One of the most proud aspects of Australia is our multiculturalism,” he said. “People live together and maintain their culture, but we will also connect, interact and work together.”