'Born with a mission to demolish Communism': Chinese-Australians reflect on nation's 70th anniversary

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Today marks 70 years since Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China — here's what Chinese-Australians think.

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This is Guosheng and Qingping Chen. The couple were both born on October 1, 1949 and their first names translate to "born on National Day" and "celebrates peace".

Guosheng migrated to Melbourne in 1984 as part of a sister-state exchange program with Jiangsu province where they lived, and her husband joined her three years later.

"My parents gave me the name because I was born on October 1, 1949. I'd like to see China to be more open, to have greater democracy. It is a very confident country now, and I really adore the people," Guosheng says.

Jin Chin, 62, moved to Sydney following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

"Maybe it's my DNA. I was born with a mission to demolish Communism. Chinese people are brainwashed to embrace totalitarianism without aspirations for democracy."

"Western democracy should do something to stop that … and change the situation. It will help the Chinese people to be liberated from the Communist yoke," Jin says.

Tower Liu, 59, came from Jiangsu province in 1990 to study English.

"[China's turned from] a very poor industrial country to become quite modern. This sort of change is not easy to do for a 1.4-billion population. I just say congratulations to our nation."

Fiona Hui, 38, was born in Hong Kong and moved to Australia to study in 2004.

"The Chinese Government has lifted a lot of people out of poverty and a lot of people's lives have been improved."

"However … in the past five years, things really have turned backwards … now [people] are very afraid to speak because if [they] criticise the Chinese Government, they are risking their life, they may be arrested, they may disappear from the world," she says.

Vincent Giuliani, 24, was born in Australia to a Chinese mother and an Italian father.

"Because I'm also Australian as well, I like to keep things multicultural and not too political."

Edward Lin, 52, is originally from Taiwan and came to Australia in 1999 through the skilled migration program.

"[My friends in Australia who went to a Confucius Institute] were told not to talk about the three T's in classroom: Taiwan, Tibet, and Tiananmen."

"People need to ask for democracy. People need to ask for rights. You don't sit there waiting for it to come … We can't see any signs that China is changing the dictatorship."

Regina Wong is a Taiwanese-Australian who lives in Brisbane. She came here in 1986 to study and visit family.

"Before 1976, I was never proud of the Chinese Government. But after the 1976 Cultural Revolution, they provided Chinese people with a good life."

"I hope that in the future, Tibetans, Mongolians and Uyghurs can also learn their own language, their own history."

Credits

Reporters: Liam Cochrane & Jason Fang

Photography & Video: Liam Cochrane, Sean Mantesso & Jarrod Fankhauser

Developer: Nathanael Scott

Digital Production: Erin Handley, Christina Zhou & Bang Xiao

Editors: Steven Viney & Xiaoning Mo

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Topics: world-politics, immigration, history, event, china, asia, australia

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