From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM. Australia's Chinese community proved to be a powerful voting block in the last election, and as the time draws need to vote again, more and more politicians are realizing that appealing to the country's one point five million Chinese Australians is key to electoral success. But as journalist Wing Quang has found, the major party's attempts to court Chinese voters
are proving to be rocky. The Chinese owned Red Note app is a new frontier in trying to reach Chinese voters, but with speech of Red Note filled by an authoritarian regime, eraises questions about how political debate in Australia is being shaped by foreign rules. Today contributed to the Saturday Paper, Wing Quang on how the Chinese community might shape the outcome of the election and what they really think of Albanesi and Dutton. It's Saturday, March fifteen, Willen, Welcome to
the show. Do you have a Red Note account?
I do, and I have actually been a longtime fan of Red Notes. I use the account to look for recommendations on restaurants, on good shops, on brands, and how to find the best outfit for my first job as well. So red Notes was launched in twenty thirteen at a time when China just had this massive boom of transborder e commerce, which means that people look online and try to buy products directly from overseas, and this is how red Note was first launched as an overseas shopping guide.
Red Notes is quite similar to TikTok in terms of how it used this algorithm that goes really strong on personalization, making your feet customized on your interest, but also it endorse a really strong geolocational algorithm. You can always see posts shared by people who are nearby, and because of that function, the app stand out among the Chinese diaspora. So since twenty twenty one, red Note has become quite
a phenomenon within the Chinese Australian community. By November last year, there are almost seven hundred thousand people in Australia actively using red Notes. If you compare that to the Chinese population in Australian which is one point four million, that's like half of the Chinese population in Australia using the platform.
If it works through jail location, that sounds like it would be useful for electoral politics. So have politicians been using it?
Yeah, So it makes it so easy for politicians to make posts that target their local voters. ABC News actually a research last November and it had found over twenty politicians of all levels having an account on Red Notes. So firstly from the current sitting MP at the federal level, we have Liberal Parties Keith Wallacham who is from the Siege of Menzies.
Dajah Howe Wargio, Keith Wallahan, your Federal Member of Parliament, Josha Sarah, my wife. We wanted to wish you.
His electorate has a huge Chinese population and he's been a star on Red Notes.
This is the Year of the Snake and I was born in the Year of the Snake, and I know that means it's a year of renewal and we need that more than ever.
We also have Labor MP Karina Garland, who is from the Siege of Chisholm, also another big Chinese electorate Kwala. I wanted to take a moment to wish all Chinese Australians in Tism a very happy Dragon Bribe festival. Also in this election, I have spotted some first time running Chinese Australians. One person I have spoken to is Wenley, who's the Greens candidate for Boner in Queensland, and he's
using that platform to communicate with potential voters. But something I do find very interesting is that the Greens has always been very vocal in terms of like global human rights issues, including China as well as the Israel Hama's War.
But I didn't really see these posts, and he told me that it's not that he is not aware, but he decides not to pose about the war on red notes because he thinks that this is quite irrelevant to the community, so he decides to just post topics that the Chinese users are interested in, such as public transport, such as immigration policy, small businesses, or economic policies.
Would there be any risk of him being seen or banned by a Red Night if he was to talk about China similars records for.
Example, Yes, And in fact redno has really clear terms of services that state that your account could be investigated or even suspended if you post anything that made damage to Chinese national security, socialist system, or break any Chinese law. So what made red noos very different from we chat or tech Talk, which are the two major Chinese apps that we are very familiar. Is that we chat and tech talk are actually the international version of their Chinese prototype,
Wasting and Dogging. And the reason why they are the international versions is because China implemented a really strong censorship system and it also introduced two strong laws on data and privacy which required all Chinese owned app operating in China to pan the data to Beijing if Beijing wants them to. This has sparked a lot of concern in the international community, and so they introduce these international versions to address the international regulations and also try to say
that we draw a line from our domestic apps. We won't hand our data to Beijing if they request. But Rednods is a purely local app for China. So what happened right now is there have been lots of federal politicians in Australia using the app to post politics related stuff, but they somehow just got shadowed banned. So, for example, Keith Willaholm and Karina Garland, their accounts still exist, but when you try to type their name on the search it never occurs coming up.
After the break, how the major parties cut through when censorship on red note stops them from speaking to Chinese voters.
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When you've been reporting on how candidates are trying to reach Chinese voters in the lead up to the election. So what do we know about how the Chinese community voted last time around?
I think in twenty twenty two, after losing several key Liberal seats such as Cheers them, the Liberal Party actually the internal review and they said that they lose the Chinese Australian voters because of their stands on China being
too hotkysh. When the COVID started, Scott Morrison directly told all the international students to go home, and following that his government was the one that requests an independent inquiry into the COVID nineteenth region and that annoyed China and as a result it was seen at the beginning of five year long trade disputes and within the Chinese Australian community, this group of people suffered a lot as a result of the dispute and as a result, you can see
the Liberal Party this time tried really hard to win back the voters from the Chinese community. Not only did they just start the launch in Chisholm, but also Peter Dunham himself had said that I'm going to be very pro China this time.
Well, I'm probably China and the relationship that we have with them, and I want that trading relationship to increase, and nobody's against pandas of course.
But so Hel was being pro panned working at for Peter Dutton.
I have seen a few commons saying that I don't want to vote for Labor, but I would never ever vote for Peter Dutton. Chinese voters remember what Peter Dutton was like when he was holding the Homo face portfolio. Don't forget that many of these people were actually first generation migrants who went through the law migration process, probably
under Peter Dutton. So I think they have been trying to push some more moderate faces to the Chinese Australian community and one of the candidates that they have spent a lot of marketing and advertising on is Scott Young, who is running for the seat for ben Alone, which is now held by labor Well.
In the heart of bad Along. Tonight Ingladesville with Maria and Susan talking to many small business owners who are working so so hard during this time. Maria, thanks for Banahi, thank you for having us. Scott and thank you.
Been known by the community since his first run for politics, probably back in twenty nineteen, and he does have this handsome look, successful entrepreneur, great son of Chinese migrant parents.
One of the things that excites me most about Scott is that those young kids in the local primary school today will be able to look to Scott when he goes as a member for ben Along to that local school to present the certificates to go to the fundraising and.
Scott Young has also been seen as like one of those young Chinese Australians who actively engage in the community and speak up for the community.
Those young Asian kids in particular will look at him and they will be inspired by him to take part in public life themselves to join the Great Liberal Party, so.
I could understand why this time the Liberals actually invested a lot on Scott your own to and promote himself on Chinese social media.
And what about the government, how are they faring with Chinese vote?
From the comments I've seen on red Notes, people do give a lot of acknowledgment on Labor for fixing the Australian China relationships and also talking about how Ethny Albanizi being a very underground politician under the leadership of Foreign Minister Penny Wall, who by the way, was also a
very popular leader among the Chinese Australians. We saw that China lifted up bands on Australian wine, Australian lobster and also beef and Labor party has tried to use this as their advantage for this election by reminding people that they have been a contributor of the Australian Chinese relations
and they are the one that fixed the problem. But probably to the surprise of many people, China itself is actually not on the top of a gender for this election among the community because of living and migration policies are the two big topics that people who discuss a lodge and it seems to going to be the very issue that will affect how Chinese Australian community will vote this time.
What do you think politicians are missing if they overlook the Chinese community in elections.
The Chinese community is always perceived as being a political as someone that just want to earn money go for the business, but people are trying to learn more about the politics. Last year during the local government elections, we are seeing an increased number of Chinese Australians running for politics and that says something. What Australian politicians should pay attention to is the genuine, authentic discussion about the election
from the Chinese Australian community. Lots of the users of Redinoes are like the young, well educated people in their mid thirties and many of them will be first generation migrants who can actually vote, and they have had some really interesting discussion about this coming election.
Willing thank you so much for your time and thank you for speaking with us.
Thank you so much Daniel for having me.
Seven Am was a daily show from Schwartz Media and the Saturday Paper is made by Atticus Basto, Shane Anderson, Chris Dangate, Daniel James, Eric Jensen, Ruby Jones, Sarah mcvee, Travis Evans, and Zaltenfecho. Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Portio. We'll be back on Monday with a special two part episode taking a closer look at Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency, and what it looks like when you try to run
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