Chinese diaspora called to unite around Communist Party
Updated
China has called on the Chinese diaspora to unite around the Communist Party, and to spread what it calls "the truth" about separatism in western Xinjiang province. The call was made by a member of China's powerful Politburo, Wang Zhaoguo.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Professor Wanning Sun, China Research Centre at the University of Technology
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SUN: I think you can look at this from a number of perspectives, politically I think the Chinese government has increasingly recognised the importance of building its international image and it's trying to facilitate towards a more positive international perception of China and this is becoming increasingly important for the Chinese government because they realise that China, despite its economic growth and power in the international arena, it does not necessarily have a very good image, so it tries very, very hard to do something about it and the diasporic Chinese communities are seen to play a very important bridging role, if you like, in changing this perception but economically speaking the diasporic Chinese is a very valuable source of investment, they're also the transnational linkage if you like between China and the trans-national market in the rest of the world.
LAM: Beijing may see the value of getting the message out there but how do you think that call by Wang Zhaoguo might be received by overseas Chinese?
SUN: I think it will be received in a mixed kind of way and depending on what kind of Chinese you are and depending on what kind of background you come from, I think for instance for the chinese students who have recently arrived in Australia, or America who actually have quite strong and close connections with China in cultural and linguistic ways and I would think the call from China would actually strike quite strong resonance with them and they feel that despite the fact they're not in China anymore, they're still spoken to, still thought of and still considered part of China and sometimes this is quite desirable for a diasporic person, for a Chinese person to have that sense of connection with China.
LAM: Australia has about 700-thousand ethnic Chinese, do you think that there is a difference between embracing cultural and ancestoral link and at the same time without identifying necessarily with the Chinese Communist Party's politics.
SUN: Oh I think it's perfectly possible, in fact I think that's very much the case, I think there is a difference between what the Chinese call patriotism and nationalism. To declare one's political allegiance to the Communist Party is one thing but to be able to identify with the chinese culture, chinese lifestyle, chinese language and chinese food is quite another. And I think that you will probably see on an everyday basis, chinese students, chinese migrants living in Australia practise dual allegiance if you like, that is they love this country, they love Australia and they're very much part of the australian life but at the same time, they watch chinese television, read chinese newspapers, go on the chinese websites and talk to their chinese friends and families back home and they don't see anything contradictory or anything wrong with living a liminal kind of existence.
