![]() ![]() Dr Ling Zhang (Sydney University) is a nurse practitioner and research fellow specialising in the care of patients with cardiovascular disease. Some researchers are also urging health professionals to use WeChat to assist their patients. Similarly, Tina Du (University of South Australia) studied the information behaviour of Chinese migrants over the age of 67, and found that WeChat has played a significant and essential role in enabling these senior citizens to live in Australia and remain connected with China. If it were banned, many of these elders would return to a state of effectively being ‘blind, deaf and mute’. ![]() But now, with the help of WeChat, CASS has recruited many more volunteers, including many new migrants from mainland China.įor older Chinese Australians, WeChat is a lifeline for overcoming social isolation and learning about Australian culture, regulations, social services, events and networks. Li reports that some of these older people have been quietly contributing to the shortage of aged care labour in Australia for many years. WeChat is particularly useful for community-based service providers to contact hard-to-reach older people. For instance, Bingqin Li (UNSW) has been studying how community organisations such as the Chinese Australian Services Society ( CASS) use WeChat to recruit volunteers in aged care and self-help groups. It is not just everyday WeChat users who are worried about a WeChat ban - academics who conduct research on various aspects of the Chinese-Australian communities are too. Moreover, there is little evidence in the latest study of Australia’s Chinese-language digital media suggesting WeChat users are easily duped by the Chinese government’s propaganda. But what is usually missing in this way of thinking is that the vast majority of Australia’s WeChat users do not endorse or support such censorship and propaganda they simply have to live with it - and within it. Other social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook are not permitted in China, and given WeChat is the most important platform Chinese Australians use to stay connected with families, friends and business associates in both China and Australia, it is unimaginable they might wake up one day without WeChat.Ĭhinese government censorship and propaganda on WeChat are often cited as reasons for concern. Like their Chinese-American counterparts, Chinese-Australian WeChat users are anticipating the Senate committee’s report with confusion and anxiety. On June 9 2021, Biden officially revoked Trump’s orders.Ĭlay Zhu, one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit, said: ‘Trump sought to justify a ban on grounds of national security concerns, but the court found no evidence to prove that such concerns were justified.’ The Trump administration appealed the court’s decision in favour of the injunction, but in February 2021, a newly elected Biden administration asked a Federal Appeals Court to place a hold on proceedings. Following Trump’s announcement, the non-profit organisation US WeChat Users Alliance (USWUA) was formed, and on August 28 2020, USWUA filed a motion for preliminary injunction in the San Francisco Federal Court seeking to block the executive orders. Trump’s attempted WeChat ban led to a well-organised, large-scale and grassroots civic action by members of the Chinese-American community. In August 2020, then-US president Donald Trump, citing national security concerns, signed executive orders prohibiting TikTok and WeChat in America. This is not the first time there has been a threat to ban it. WeChat is the predominant Chinese social media platform, both in China and for first-generation Mandarin-speaking Chinese migrant communities worldwide. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Fergus Ryan, for instance, believes that banning WeChat should never be ‘ taken off the table‘. But Paterson is not alone in thinking Chinese-owned apps should be banned. The committee is chaired by Liberal Senator James Paterson, widely considered to be a ‘China hawk who has led the push for a crackdown on Chinese-owned apps’. Submissions from the public closed in February, and the committee will hand down its final report by early August. ![]() On November 24 2022, the Senate resolved to establish a select committee to inquire into and report on the risk posed to Australia’s democracy by foreign interference through social media. Note: This article appeared in Crikey on May 17 2023. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |