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Courageous John campaigns in China
 These two both know how to place one-sided reports in the Chinese media
My wife recently found a couple of interesting articles about Australian Prime Minister John Howard in a Chinese newspaper called the China Business Post (Caijing Shibao). This is the first time that I’ve heard of this newspaper, which is seemingly unconnected with the famous Chinese financial magazine Caijing. The two articles covered an entire page of the newspaper’s June 18 edition. The title of the main article gives you a good example of what to expect: How Australia’s golden bricks were refined – an analysis of the changes in the trade and geopolitical relationships between China and Australia. The article is written by somebody called Zhou Feng, who curiously hails from the Nanjing Army Command Academy. I am not sure why a military academic is writing about John Howard, but the article was a glowing review of the Prime Minister’s role in the relationship between China and Australia.
The other article is even more curious. It is written by somebody called Jin Ge, but unlike the first article, no mention is made of Jin’s danwei. The article is actually a sickening piece about John Howard’s embrace of multiculturalism and his chummy relationship with the Chinese community in Australia. I have translated the article because it is a good laugh and also because it introduces a version of John Howard that most Australians are unfamiliar with (probably because it doesn’t exist). As to the exact origins of the article, I think the third last paragraph gives a good indication when it mentions the formation of ‘The Australian Liberal Party’s Chinese Association.’ There are three reasons why I hate this article:
- It is completely biased towards John Howard and the Liberal Party. The lack of moderation in this article makes me wonder whether it’s a ‘cash for column’ type of scenario.
- Because it seems as though Howard is adhering to Chinese President Hu Jintao’s Socialist Concept of Honour and Disgrace. The article pathetically panders to its Chinese audience.
- It portrays Howard as being a major contributor to Australian multiculturalism. This will be a surprise to almost anybody who knows anything about Australia.
I am not sure why the Liberal Party needs to extend its dirty claws into China, but I guess 400,000 Chinese Australians is a lot of votes. My translation of the article is below:
Howard’s courage and the joy of Chinese Australians
By Jin Ge, Caijing Shibao, page A8, 18 June 2007
A Chinese media organisation in Australia recently playfully stated that throughout Prime Minister John Howard’s long political career, he has shown characteristics of kung-fu. Like the master in Chinese kung-fu movies, Howard only needs to concentrate his powers to become immovable.
Not only can this talent of Howard’s be seen from the way he finds the answers among the friendly relationships between China and other Asian countries, it can also be seen from the meeting he had with Chinese Australians earlier this month.
Howard met with local Chinese prior to making a speech at the Epping RSL (Returned and Services League) Community Club on June 7. Not only did he speak generously about the contribution that Chinese have made to Australian culture, but he also said that Chinese are a hardworking people who have made a great contribution to the relationship between Australia and China.
After the speech, Howard again met with more than 500 Chinese in the Club, reportedly staying for nearly two hours. This was the longest time that he has met with Chinese since becoming Prime Minister, revealing that Howard has identified the Chinese community as being a foundation for his upcoming election battle. This corresponds with Howard’s fourth election victory in 2004, when he singled out the Chinese community and thanked them for their support.
After taking time to come to fruition, the current situation of perfect harmony between Howard and Australia’s Chinese community is permeated with Howard’s courage.
When the 35-year-old Howard officially entered politics through his election to the House of Representatives in 1974, he didn’t have a welcoming attitude towards immigrants, including Chinese. He recently reminisced in the Weekend Australian about his opposition in 1988 of a further intake of Asian immigrants and the controversy that it sparked, saying that time has shown his previous view to be wrong. He stated that he still regrets that moment.
After 30 years in politics, Howard has formed the most tolerant critique of multiculturalism, thus public opinion believes this demonstrates his courage. This courage, whereby Howard acknowledges his mistakes and improves them, is not an unusual characteristic of his. Howard’s final weekly political column in 2005 carried out a comparison between honours and disgraces. Australia’s immediate rescue work following the Indonesian tsunami was seen as an honour, while ethnic clashes on Sydney’s beaches were seen as a loss of face and sickening.
What Howard saw as a disgrace was the powder keg that ignited when a group of Lebanese immigrants clashed with two lifesavers on the evening of December 11. A group of 5000 white youths congregated at Cronulla Beach in Sydney’s south, chanting racist slogans while pursuing and bashing Lebanese immigrants. Howard’s emotional end-of-year speech also demonstrated a politician’s courage when faced with reality. On 1 May 2007, he again stated that the entrance of new citizens into society is beneficial to all Australians.
It is undisputable that in some aspects, Howard’s courage has brought about joy for Chinese Australians. Prior to the 1950s, the White Australia Policy restricted yellow-skinned Asian immigrants, with only 0.23 per cent of Australia’s total population being Chinese. Following the initial dismantling of the White Australia Policy in March 1966, the Australian government announced a new immigration policy in 1974 that was not prejudiced against any ethnicity, skin colour or nationality. Chinese then began to immigrate to Australia in large numbers. Especially since Howard was elected as federal prime minister in March 1996, the total number of Chinese Australians has exceeded 400,000.
Following this trend, Chinese Australians are no longer purely making a living, but they have politically and economically entered the mainstream. When Huang Guoxin was elected as the mayor of Adelaide in April 2002, he became Australia’s first Chinese mayor and established a new milestone. On 4 April 2007, a new organisation called ‘The Australian Liberal Party’s Chinese Association’ was officially established at the Liberal Party’s Victorian Headquarters in Melbourne. This organisation is another breakthrough for Chinese in Australia’s mainstream political scene. Chinese Australians believe that entering the mainstream is a positive direction and involvement in politics is the best demonstration of this.
Howard’s attitude to Chinese Australians trying to enter the mainstream is clear. When he met with Chinese Australians on June 7, Howard was asked whether a person of Chinese or Vietnamese origin will become Prime Minister. Without hesitation, Howard replied: “It’s very probable, I can’t think of any reason why not.” Statistics reveal that an increasing number of Chinese are being counted among the list of Australia’s richest 200 people. Many Chinese immigrants have become millionaires and multi-millionaires, with some even becoming billionaires.
Chinese Australians are also willing to support Howard, thus providing him with a strong foundation and the facilities to create active and excellent diplomatic and economic relationships with Asia and China. Their support allows Howard to concentrate his powers on both domestic and international issues, while also building up his own strength.
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Posted: 1:30 AM, 23/6/2007 in Blogging and the mediaShare on Facebook |
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Tardy
I think this writer might be a little behind the times, not to say ill informed. No mention, for example, that it was the Howard government that removed the hate M word from DIMA to make it the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIC). I looks very much like paid advertorial for Howard. Does it really matter though, given that Australia's most famous zhongguo-tong, Kevin from Queensland, looks so far ahead in the polls?
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Posted by Anonymous at 9:23 PM, 23/6/2007 |
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