Between centrality and anxiety

Abstract

China’s centrality to Australia’s economy, migration, tourism, and student population is obvious today and likely to continue. And yet there appears to be anxiety among some in Australia about China’s ‘rise’, especially its growing military power, seemingly aggressive behaviour in disputed maritime space, global economic influence, and apparent quest for global leadership. This article analyses the two parallel realities (centrality and anxiety) of Australia’s relationship with China.

Interactive impact of ethnic distance and cultural familiarity on the perceived effects of free trade agreements

“…Clearly as Australia has become a multi-cultural nation with a mosaic of many underlying cultural values and value systems (including Chinese), along with growing close business and cultural relations with China, we now have a relatively good understanding of each other's value systems (DFAT, 2016a(DFAT, , 2016b(DFAT, , 2016c. Hence, these findings are probably a reflection that those underlying negative sentiments and assumptions held by Australia towards China (Jain & McCarthy, 2016) are really not that critical when it comes to our underlying perceptions and attitudes towards ChAFTA.…”

“…In terms of trade and permanent Chinese migration to Australia, no other country matters more to Australia than China (Jain & McCarthy, 2016) implying the strategic significance of this agreement. Moreover, the FTA with China needs to be practical, effective and meaningful to the Australian economy; hence, any findings gleaned from this research are likely to be applicable in many other free trade agreement contexts.…”

“…ASEAN, EEC, MERCOSUR and NAAFTA) in nature, we addressed this from the perspective of the newly signed bilateral Australia-China free trade agreement that came into effect on 20 th December, 2015 (DFAT, 2016b). The signing of this particular free trade agreement is the culmination of much activities undertaken by successive Australian and Chinese governments during the preceding 12 years that emerged from the Australia-China Economic and Trade Framework signed in 2003 (Jain & McCarthy, 2016). Subsequent discussions determined that a bilateral free trade agreement between Australia and China was highly feasible and would be of benefit to both nations (DFAT, 2005).…”

“…In line with the first objective of the research (scale development and assessment) an initial battery of 44-items were identified and generated through an extensive search of the literature that provided guidance to potentially reflect perceived consequences of FTAs for organizations and its employees (e.g. Alam, 2015;Beyondblue, 2016;Chia, 2015;DFAT, 2005DFAT, , 2016bDixon, 2007;Frenk, et al, 1994;Gray & Slapin, 2012;Hayakawa, 2015;Islam & Islam, 2010;Jain & McCarthy, 2016;Kim, 2011;Leahy et al, 2008;May et al, 2005;Santos, 1992) Items in the well-being sub-scale represent the key outcomes from the internationally recognized Australian organization Beyondblue (https://www.beyondblue.org.au) that promotes good mental health and tackles stigma and discrimination (Beyondblue, 2016). For each item in the FTA consequences instrument, respondents were asked their views using a seven-point Likert type scale about the extent they agreed or disagreed with each item, using 'strongly disagree' [1] and 'strongly agree' [7] as anchors.…”

“…In order to test our underlying supposition that employees and decision-makers from culturally and politically divergent nations potentially bring their underlying socio-cultural biases into their FTA evaluations, we look to the recently signed China-Australia free trade agreement (ChAFTA). This is a suitable research setting to test our hypotheses because Australia has traditionally viewed the overall political and economic relationship with China through two, often conflicting lenses (Jain & McCarthy, 2016), which exemplify the potential role of ethnic and cultural biases within a strong and growing economic relationship between nations. First, since the breadth and depth of economic links between the nations have intensified to a point where Australia is now economically dependent upon its bilateral trade with China to a great extent (DFAT 2016a), the recent ChAFTA helps fortify this economic relationships.…”