"Most Australians of Chinese descent were not born in China, and most go through life here without feeling any pressure to respond to overtures in Beijing. In fact, I'd argue that Australia's tendency to reduce this community to 'victims' or 'vectors' of CCP interference is doing much more to prompt Chinese Australians to reflect on their hereditary ties to China.

After 9/11, as outsiders increasingly came to view those of Muslim faith through the lens of religion, immigrants who had previously identified primarily in national terms felt themselves to be seen as Muslim. Some have described the experience of 'waking up Muslim' after 9/11. Something similar is being felt among Australian-born Chinese, who have had to grapple with their Chineseness not as a result of PRC interference but because of Australian paranoia towards it."

For most of my life, I've considered myself Australian and pretty much never reflected on my hereditary ties to China. It's ironically because of the media's "Red Scare" and "Yellow Peril" narratives that has caused me to really think of myself as Chinese. This has been amplified even more when I see calls for regime change and I think about the impact such a thing would have on my family living there.