This level of dislike for Morrison among Chinese Australians should come as no surprise, given that the roughest patch in Australia-China relations happened during his reign. But now he’s gone, can Peter Dutton begin to mend fences?
Following the announcement of Scott Morrison’s decision to quit politics, Sydney Today, Australia’s most popular Chinese-language digital media outlet, conducted an informal poll gauging readers’ responses to Morrison and his contribution to Australian politics.
Just 15% of respondents said they liked Morrison. The main reasons they gave were either because they thought he had worked in Australia’s national interest, or because he was a strong proponent of Australian values, or — perhaps surprisingly — because he was behind the AUKUS military alliance with the US and UK.
Around 75% of respondents said they disliked him for a variety of reasons: because he had worsened Australia–China relations; because he had gone on a holiday during the bushfire season; because he had handled sex scandals in his government badly; or for no specific reason. Around 10% said they had “no feeling about him” one way or another.
In other words, the majority of survey respondents were glad to see the back of him.
This level of dislike for Morrison among Chinese Australians should come as no surprise, given that the roughest patch in relations between Australia and China happened during the Coalition’s reign.
While Tony Abbott may be remembered for praising Xi Jinping and signing a new free trade agreement with China in 2014, the temperature started to cool when Malcolm Turnbull listened to his security advisers and introduced espionage and foreign interference legislation, which was primarily and pointedly aimed at China. His now-infamous remark, that “the Australian people stand up and assert their sovereignty in our nation”, referencing Mao’s proclamation on the........