The Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently issued a travel alert to Australia, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, there has been a significant increase in racist remarks and violence against Chinese and Asian Americans in Australia, and everyone is advised to be vigilant and avoid traveling.
China and Australia have established diplomatic relations for 48 years and have maintained close economic and cultural exchanges. But in fact, Australia's hostility against the Chinese is not a whim, but has a deep historical background.
Australia, the land named the "Southern Continent", has been inhabited by prehistoric societies as early as before. Today, however, the land's owners are not indigenous people, who make up a tiny minority of the country's 23.27 million people, just over 410,000.
The wheels of history roll forward, in 1606, the Dutchman William Janes and his"Duifgen"The landing of a seafaring ship on the Australian continent marked the first time a new human presence had set foot on the ancient continent after more than 40,000 years.
In 1770, the Englishman Cook landed on the east coast of Australia and named it"New South Wales", declaring the land to become British territory.
Then, eighteen years later, the British sent the first immigrants to the land, including a contingent of 736 immigrants with 1,530 convicts.
Australia's colonial era opened a new chapter in the Great Voyage. From 1788 to 1900, the British colonized Australia for more than 100 years, bringing Australia's population to the millions.
In 1901, Australia officially became a federal state. During the early development of Australia by the British, the exiles became the main labor force.
Britain continued to send criminals to Australia, a policy that lasted until the thirties of the 19th century. The British did this mainly because the exiles could be used as cheap labor, making them ideal for development and operation in new areas.
However, after the thirties of the 19th century, as Britain stopped sending criminals to Australia, Australia's cheap labor** became insufficient. However, in the fifties, gold was discovered in New South Wales, Australia, which caused a gold rush in Australia.
However, the lack of a workforce in Australia has severely constrained the development of the gold mining industry in Australia.
In colonial Australia, the Qing Dynasty was forced open by the British, and Chinese society was experiencing the beginning of modern history. With the lifting of restrictions on population movement during the Qing Dynasty, a large number of people from China's coastal areas migrated south by sea"Down to the South Seas"of the craze.
Among them, many Chinese came to Australia by sea and participated in the gold rush team. The Chinese, with their special ability to bear hardships and stand hard work and are good at drilling, quickly gained a foothold in the local area.
However, it also drew hostility from the local population and other immigrants, especially whites, who felt that the arrival of people of color, especially Chinese, had robbed them of their jobs and therefore strongly demanded that Chinese be driven back to China.
Between 1854 and 1861, Australians had already begun to commit acts of violence against the Chinese, even to the point of killing people in the streets. The Chinese were bullied internationally, but there was nowhere to reason, because the Qing **** itself at that time was also living under the oppression of the great powers, and it was simply not enough to support the Chinese internationally.
Due to the weakness and incompetence of **, Australia's anti-Chinese sentiment continues to ferment.
In 1901, the establishment of the Australian Commonwealth**, accompanied by the rejection of the Chinese, launched the "White Australia Policy". The policy stems from the Immigration Restriction Act, which aims to restrict immigration for non-Europeans.
Although all non-Europeans were initially banned from entering Australia, Australia could not exclude people from both countries because Australia was a member of the Commonwealth, India was part of the Commonwealth, and Britain had close ties with Japan.
In order to limit immigration, Australia has introduced a language test policy, requiring all immigration applicants to pass a test in a European language before they can be allowed to immigrate. This policy led to a steady decline in the number of Chinese, and by the mid-20th century, nearly 20,000 Chinese had left Australia, and the proportion of Chinese in the total population had increased from 078% dropped to 012%。
This policy remained in place until 1972, when it was eventually scrapped by the British Labour Party.
The history of the Australian Gold Rush: After World War II, in order to meet the labor needs of national economic construction and industrial development, Australia abolished the White Australia policy and opened the immigration policy to the outside world.
Since 1956, people of colour and their relatives living in Australia have been able to obtain Australian citizenship, and the Immigration Act has eliminated the dictation test to encourage people of colour to immigrate.
Between 1956 and 1969, more than 10,000 coloured people were granted Australian citizenship. However, although the White Australia policy was legally abolished, its racial discrimination still deeply affected Australian society, and the conflict between the Chinese and the local residents escalated again with the mass immigration of Chinese.
The pace of life in Australia is relatively leisurely and less stressful, while the Chinese often choose to immigrate to Australia due to the pressure of life. Therefore, although the wages of Chinese in Australia are usually lower than those of local residents, they can work multiple jobs at the same time and earn a significant income due to their hard work.
However, this hard-working approach has sparked resentment among some Australians, who see the presence of Chinese as a threat to their employment opportunities. In addition, Australia has always had ambitions to dominate the South Seas, and for Australia, the only possible threat to its geopolitical interests is from East Asia.
This is the reason why Australia was at war with Japan fiercely during World War II. In recent years, with the rise of China, Australia has become wary of China and has actively joined the Pacific strategic system built by the United States to contain China and become the vanguard of anti-China.
Although Australia's unique multiculturalism attracts immigrants from all over the world in the U.S. island chain strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, it has also led to an increase in conflicts of interest between various groups within the country.
Among them, the Chinese community suffers the most serious discrimination. This stems not only from the resilience of the Chinese people, which some people feel threatened, but also partly because of the humiliating experience of China's recent history, which has long left it with a low status in the international community and suffered discrimination.
In addition, Australia's geostrategic and international position as an ally of the United States also makes it compelled to take an anti-China stance.