Students attend a graduation ceremony in Australia's Curtin University. Photo: IC





Once a "paradise for immigrants" in the eyes of many Chinese, frequent occurrences of youth violence and accusations of espionage have left many feeling that Australia has become less friendly to them.



Since last week, the most trending news among Chinese living or studying in Australia has been a widely viewed violent attack on October 23 that left two Chinese high school students injured.



The two were allegedly attacked after they declined to give cigarettes to at least two teenagers at a bus interchange. Several Chinese students in Canberra said it was one of a series of recent incidents of harassment in the south of the city, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.



The group of local youngsters shouted racist insults at the Chinese students, telling them to "go back to China," Global Television Network reported. Two of the juveniles were arrested and have been brought before the ACT Children's court, said a police statement updated on Thursday.



Fear and outrage



Though the injured students have been discharged from hospital and the Chinese Embassy in Australia has lodged representations and expressed concern to the Australian government, many Chinese students in Australia said they remained "outraged and frightened."



"It would be more than infuriating if racism were involved. Violence should be punished according to law, and people who discriminate against us should apologize," Ma Tina (pseudonym), a postgraduate student at the University of Melbourne, told the Global Times on Monday.



Many Chinese are feeling insecure, as they believe the juvenile protection law in Australia actually fails to protect Chinese students in many cases. "You cannot hit back even if they split your head open, otherwise you would just wait to be repatriated," Ma said, "So we just walk away if we see teenage hoodies on street."



"It's uncomfortable to hear about such incidents, but it's very hard to eliminate this discrimination," said Wang Siran, another student at University of Melbourne.



This is the second time in the second half of 2017 that the Chinese Embassy in Australia has issued a statement warning Chinese citizens of such incidents.



In late August, the embassy urged the Australian government to conduct a prompt investigation and fairly handle the case of a campus attack that left Chinese students injured on August 25.



Some Chinese students in Australia told the Global Times that though they did not feel racism against Chinese was a widespread phenomenon, many of them did feel the country has become a lot less friendly in recent years.



In July, Chinese international students were described as "a threat to Australian openness" in a New York Times opinion piece by Merriden Varrall, an Australian-based East Asia expert.



Mainstream Western media, including forbes.com, also reported accusations that Chinese students are spying for their government in colleges.



The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper warned as early as 2012 that Chinese students are "at risk" in Australia due to the country's rising youth crime rate.



Even though Chinese experts and students in Australia say that anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiment only exists among a small group of people, they noted that local governments and local police should pay more attention to protecting the legal rights of the community.



Stoking the fire



The Australian government and media has contributed to an air that seems to tolerate violent behavior that the country is also failing to pay enough attention to, Zhou Fangyin, a professor with the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies, told the Global Times.



An attack on a foreigner with a legal identity is not only dangerous, but also illegal, and should be punished seriously in accordance with law, Xu Liping, a research fellow on Southeast Asian affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. "It concerns the legal construction in Australia, as well as reducing setbacks for bilateral relations," Xu noted.



As of June 2016, Chinese made up the third largest group of immigrants in Australia, following the UK and New Zealand, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in March. Meanwhile, five out of the top 10 largest immigrant groups in Australia are from Asian countries, the data shows.



Australia needs immigrants from Asian countries as they make huge contributions to the development of local communities, but this has made some locals feel uncomfortable, said Zhou.



If Australia stops receiving Asian immigrants, the country's population will drop rapidly to a degree that the country's development cannot afford, Zhou noted.



Extremely violent behavior toward Chinese is also seen in some Western countries, including the US, France and Spain, which shows the Western community's panic and anxiety toward a rising China and its influence on the global order, said Xu. Facing the unknown, the community has chosen rejection as its spontaneous response, Xu added.



Wu Zhiwei and Gao Ying contributed to this story



