Australia’s China illiteracy has dangerous consequences | East Asia Forum
Yun Jiang is the AIIA China Matters Fellow.
A 2023 report published by the Australian Academy of Humanities highlighted the steady decline in China studies in Australia, especially in universities. Students are increasingly ‘[choosing] to study China as a factor in international affairs, rather than the substantive China content that helps us understand China on its own terms’. At one university in particular, more post-graduate students had ‘chosen to study China in the context of international security studies than [had] chosen to study China’s history, politics, language, or culture combined’.
This should not be surprising. After all, Australia has moved away from the ‘Asian Century’ to the Indo-Pacific. The Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, released in 2012, emphasised the need to seize opportunities to engage with Asian countries such as China. The Indo-Pacific, on the other hand, is a distinctively security-focused term. It defines the region in terms of maritime flashpoints. Instead of opportunities and cooperation, the focus is instead on threats and competition. As a result, Australia sees China through a security-only lens, with China often portrayed as the enemy in the national security community.
DOWNLOAD REPORT : https://humanities.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Australias-China-Knowledge-Capability-report-1.pdf
READ FULL ARTICLE : Australia’s China illiteracy has dangerous consequences | East Asia Forum
