Germany has undergone significant political transformations throughout its history. It was unified as a nation in 1871, followed by a constitutional monarchy from 1871 to 1919. From 1919 to 1933, it experienced the democratic governance of the Weimar Republic, which was later replaced by Hitler’s totalitarian rule from 1933 to 1945. After World War II, from 1945 to 1949, Germany was under the control of the four Allied powers before transitioning to democratic constitutional governance from 1949 to the present day. This history of over a century serves as a testament that democracy is not necessarily straight forward; there is always the possibility of a shift towards dictatorship. Every citizen in a democratic society must cherish and uphold their rights, ensuring that those in power do not inflate their authority without limits.

Today, as Trump has become the President of the United States in less than a month, he has already demonstrated his determination to use his power as the leader of the world’s most powerful nation to reshape the global order. Every country is directly or indirectly affected by the policies he implements under the slogan “Make America Great Again.” For Australia, the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on global steel imports—while considering exemptions for Australia due to their special relationship—has influenced the Australian government’s response to America’s dominating stance and its treatment of other nations and their people.

Without consulting the will of the Palestinian people, the United States plans to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip while barring Palestinians from returning—an act that clearly constitutes a policy of ethnic cleansing. However, Prime Minister Albanese has merely reiterated Australia’s continued support for the United Nations’ long-standing two-state solution, without explicitly opposing Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to strip millions of people of their right to live on this land. This kind of unprincipled “political pragmatism” is deeply disheartening. In essence, it is no different from the “appeasement policy” implemented by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain before World War II.

At the time when the democratic Weimar Republic in Germany elected a totalitarian leader like Hitler, the world’s tolerance of authoritarian rulers ultimately led to World War II. Today, Donald Trump, backed by popular support for his vision to “revive America,” has made bold proposals, such as reclaiming control of the Panama Canal, openly yelling to force on the purchase of resource-rich yet sparsely populated strategic territories like Greenland, and even suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state of the United States. Furthermore, he views the war-torn Gaza Strip, far away in Palestine, as land for American-led redevelopment—considering it a necessary step to achieve “America First.”. Such actions not only fuel the fanaticism of nationalists but also pose a direct threat to global peace.

As a mediocre nation in the Pacific, it is indeed soul-searching on how should Australia navigate China’s rise, America’s assertive dominance, and the growing ambitions of other nations?  While we lack the ability to change the course of global events, our ability to reduce direct conflicts between nations—and avoid being drawn into them—depends on the vision and ability of our political leaders.

With the upcoming federal election, will the leaders we choose offer us hope? One can only pray that God will raise the right leaders for Australia.

Mr. Raymond Chow, Publisher of Sameway Magazine

Lunar New Year Celebration

Melbourne’s Lunar New Year celebrations this year were a blast, with a multicultural Lunar New Year Fair organized by the Springvale Asian Business Association (SABA) on Australia Day, January 26th in Springvale. This year, I was unable to attend and set up a booth as the Sameway Magazine was celebrating its 20th anniversary on the same day in Box Hill Community Arts Centre. On Saturday, February 1, there was a community celebration with politicians at Box Hill, and on Sunday, February 2, I went to Chinatown to participate in the traditional Lion and Dragon Dance in the city center for the tourists. There were lion dance teams from various organizations performing to the traders in Chinatown to wish them good luck for the new year. On February 9, there was a Lunar New Year and Lantern Festival celebration at Glen Waverley. The Sameway Magazine also had two booths offering riddles games, calligraphy, a roulette wheel raffle, and an exhibition on organ donation, which attracted a lot of people to look around. The event was sponsored by the Oriental Merchants which sponsored a lot of gifts. After this day, all the New Year celebrations were completed and we could stop for a while to take a break.

As in the past, all the celebrations at Springvale were very unique. During the opening ceremony, the MCs spoke Vietnamese, Cambodian, Mandarin and English, accepting each other’s ethnicity with a folkloric and lively atmosphere, and the food was everywhere, which was extremely enjoyable. This year’s price hike has made it difficult for small businesses to operate, and many downtown Chinatown merchants are looking forward to the Lion and Dragon Dance to drive away the hard times, and revival. There were also a lot of tourists to the city centre, and many nearby landmarks were having activities, so it could be said that Melburnian Chinese all worked together to decorate the beautiful side of Melbourne, so that everyone could enjoy themselves, At Glen Waverley’s celebrations, the weather was the best, not too hot and sunny, but not too many visitors, and there were fewer booths compared to the previous year. Maybe it’s because of the huge number of Lunar New Year events across Melbourne. One of my friends, who is a parliamentary officer for a local MP, told me that her boss, has participated in 12 community events in the past two weeks, so I guess he is feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Box Hill annual Celebration “Hijacked” by Politicians

Yes, the celebration with the largest number of dignitaries in attendance today was the Box Hill Celebration. Due to the construction of the SRL, the event was held in the backstreet near the Box Hill Town Hall, but it was a great opportunity for the MPs to get some exposure. This year is a federal election year, and the area around Box Hill has been transformed from the Chisholm electorate to the Menzies electorate, making it a marginal seat for the two major political parties to fight over. Prime Minister Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton both attended the event to rally support from the Chinese community. A number of councillors and candidates from the East Metropolitan Melbourne also took the opportunity to show their support for their own parties, including independent councillor Monique Ryan from nearby Kooyong electorate. The Prime Minister lived up to his promise and said in his opening speech that if he won this year’s election, he would spend a total of $150,000 over the next three years to support the ABAW in organizing further celebrations. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Peter Dutton, also responded immediately that he would be even more generous in allocating $250,000 over the next five years to support the event.

This is what I find most offensive because it is a blatant “bribe” from politicians to the Chinese community. The federal government’s support of the Chinese community’s Lunar New Year celebrations is commendable. But why not put resources into Melbourne’s Chinatown to organize a celebration for the entire Chinese community and tourists, or support Springvale’s for many years of uniting Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrants from different countries to promote community solidarity and social cohesion? The Asian Business Association of Whitehorse (ABAW) in Box Hill organizes this annual event, which has all along been strongly supported by the Whitehorse City Council and sponsored by a number of local big real estate developers and banks, and in recent years, it has even organized a lavish thank-you reception to promote the event, so why should it worry about the lack of funds? Are the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition all suckers for influence? Of course not. In the run-up to the election, the Lunar New Year has become a political event to garner support from the Chinese community.

Bribing the Chinese community?

Federal funding should be approved in accordance with the relevant policies. Funding for Lunar New Year celebrations should be approved by the Minister of Multicultural Affairs, and should be evaluated to find the most appropriate program to support. Over the years, the longest running celebration is in Melbourne’s Chinatown, and the earliest and most widely supported multicultural event in the outlying communities, the Springvale Lunar New Year’s Market, have not received any federal funding. Should the Minister for Multicultural Affairs explain why the Prime Minister has taken it upon himself to offer his support to the Box HIll event? The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Dutton, probably also needs to explain.

But then again, this is a federal election year, and Melbourne’s Chinese community is a hotbed of competition between the two major political parties, and the Chinese community of Box Hill once in the Chisholm and now in the Menzies electorates, is extremely marginal, so it is no wonder that the two major political parties have come forward to ask for support for the Box Hill annual Lunar New Year Celebration. Such behaviour can be regarded as “election bribery” to the Chinese community.

Responding to the needs of the Chinese community

It is common and acceptable for politicians to offer funds to specific groups of people during general elections, obviously to buy people’s hearts and minds by providing subsidies, but I think it should be done in a proper way. First of all, these funds should be used to meet the real needs of these communities, not as window dressing for some community leaders. In light of the long history of business sponsorships that the ABAW has received in the past, federal funding is just icing on the cake, and does not meet the principle of supporting the real needs of the community.

What are the urgent needs of the Chinese community? Of course, everyone has a different perspective on this issue. In order to buy Chinese votes, the leaders of political parties will naturally recognize these needs as long as they are able to consult with the community and understand the people’s sentiments. If a political party’s funding proposal can address the most urgent needs, it will be most recognized by the Chinese community and will receive the strongest support in the election. Therefore, in order to buy the votes of the Chinese Australian, one should not do it casually, but should show the political wisdom and knowledge of the politicians. To put it simply, one has to find the “right” way to buy votes in order to achieve the goal.

In Victoria, the first person who took the initiative to reach out to the multicultural community was Ted Baillieu, the then leader of the opposition after 2006. Ted Baillieu took the initiative to hold regular press conferences for the multicultural media, requesting the media to reflect the needs of the community to him on a regular basis, and set up a special column in Sameway Magazine to collect the views of the Chinese community on the government. 5% of the government’s publicity budget would be allocated to multicultural media. The Labor Party followed suit and established close ties with the Chinese community, and continues to do so today.

In the 2014 election, Victorian Labor Leader Daniel Andrews proposed a policy of supporting the construction of multicultural elderly care facilities. To date, the Labor government has purchased four parcels of land to build care facilities for the Indian and Chinese communities. Unfortunately, these four sites are still vacant and have not been allocated to the community for construction. Melbourne has more than 40,000 Chinese elders aged over 75, and according to the federal government’s elderly care standards, they need at least 1,500 elderly care beds. Even if the proportion of Chinese elderly in care facilities is not as high as in mainstream society, it is estimated that at least half of them would need 750 beds. With less than 200 Chinese-speaking beds managed by Chinese community, this means that most non-English speaking Chinese elders will end up in English-speaking elderly care facilities, where they will have to live a difficult life without communication with their fellow residents and caregivers. Two sites, which have already been purchased for Chinese-interested elderly care facilities, are projects that the Victorian government desperately needs to develop as quickly as possible. The federal government, which is responsible for senior care policy, has a responsibility to assist the Chinese community in building senior care facilities on these two purchased sites.

If Prime Minister Albanese or Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would commit funds to support the Melbourne Chinese community to build much needed elderly care facilities on these two sites, it would show that they value the Chinese tradition of respecting and caring for the elderly, and would better meet the needs of the aging Chinese immigrant community. I believe that this kind of buying Chinese votes will be recognized and supported by all Chinese people.

Mr. Raymond Chow, Publisher of Sameway Magazine

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential executive order on February 1 that imposed additional tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, Canada, and China, specifying that small-dollar imports of less than 800 U.S. dollars would also be included in the scope of the tax. The move is believed to target Chinese e-commerce companies such as Temu and Shein, which have taken advantage of the duty-free policy on small-value imports to rapidly expand their share of the U.S. market. The latest news is that Trump has signed another executive order temporarily freezing tariffs on low-cost packages from China so that specific arrangements can be made. The White House did not specify how long the administration plans to delay the tariffs.

Fast Fashion Brand SHEIN Dominates Overseas Markets with Low Prices

Chinese e-commerce is pervasive

Temu has been expanding overseas since September 2020, and ECDB (e-commerce database) figures show an exponential increase in web traffic and app downloads in May 2023 compared to April. Not only Temu, but also Shein, Aliexpress, and JD have taken their domestic competition to the global market, creating a wave of Chinese e-commerce platform shopping around the world. In the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the inflationary impact of the new Covid-19 pandemic in Europe and the United States, low-cost products have become more attractive to European and American consumers, and have even relieved them of their tight wallets.

In the U.S., Temu bills itself as a 2022 Boston-based, Delaware-registered business that ships products directly from manufacturers and suppliers. According to industry analysis, Temu’s primary operator is its Chinese parent company, Pinduoduo, which was founded in Guangdong in 2019. Leveraging Pinduoduo’s experience in grabbing the market with low prices in China, Temu has not only rapidly built up its user base in Europe and the U.S. through extensive advertising and referrals from friends, but has even attracted consumers who boycotted Amazon because they thought it was a monopoly e-commerce company. On the other hand, Shein is a cross-border B2C Internet enterprise focusing on women’s fast fashion, which was founded in October 2008 with the goal of “enjoying the beauty of fashion for everyone”. Shein’s business focuses on women’s fast fashion, and it has entered major markets such as North America, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America, and directly serves consumers in more than 150 countries around the world, with an APP that covers more than 50 languages globally, and owns 11 private labels. 2020, during the outbreak of the New Crown epidemic, the apparel industry was hit hard, and Zara announced that its revenue had been cut by half in February-April, and it decided to close 1,200 stores. Zara announced that its revenues would be almost halved from February to April and decided to close 1,200 stores. At the same time, Shein’s sales exceeded $40 billion in the first half of 2020, and with a total valuation of more than $15 billion in E-round financing, it has become the apparel brand that is most likely to challenge Zara’s leading position.

One of the secrets of these e-commerce companies’ “pie in the sky” approach to overseas markets is their ability to understand and take advantage of local laws. The costs of cross-border e-commerce include marketing, customer acquisition, cost of goods, and transportation. Currently, Temu and Shein are taking advantage of the Universal Postal Agreement to utilize free parcel post and tariff exemptions to significantly reduce costs. In the U.S., for example, if the value of imported goods is less than $800, duty-free measures apply (the De Minimis rule); the De Minimis rule has been used by Temu, Shein, and other Chinese low-cost e-commerce companies that have been growing rapidly in the U.S. and elsewhere in recent years. These companies deliver goods directly from Chinese factories and warehouses to U.S. consumers through air transportation and other means, realizing non-taxable sales and thus suppressing prices. Compared with U.S. e-commerce companies such as Amazon, which have built warehouses and logistics networks within the U.S., Chinese e-commerce companies have stronger price competitiveness. Trump’s latest tariff policy has changed the status quo.

Building warehouses in the U.S., in addition to increased customs declaration fees and tariffs, but also additional transportation costs, and inventory and management logistics costs, it is clear that operating costs will increase significantly.

Seeking survival in the midst of uncertainty

Trump’s policy is a bit like the wolf coming to the rescue. Today he says he will levy taxes, but tomorrow he says he will not do so for the time being. Just when the media are clamoring that cross-border e-commerce overnight, the U.S. tariff policy has changed again – Trump signed an executive order that will continue to allow low-cost product parcels from China to enter the U.S. tariff-free for the time being. The U.S. will continue to provide “de minimis” tariff exemptions for goods from China until the Department of Commerce “establishes adequate systems to fully and expeditiously process and collect tariff revenues”. This change is a win for Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Shein, which ship directly to the U.S. and are very popular with cost-conscious shoppers, and a relief for U.S.-based consumers, who face higher costs on retail goods shipped from China.

According to statistics, approximately 4 million small-dollar packages valued at less than $800 are shipped from China to the U.S. every day. While this may not be a “big deal” in the huge volume of U.S.-China economic and trade transactions, the pain of eliminating the small-dollar exemption could easily and quickly be transmitted to the nerve endings of U.S. society, given that most of these packages consist of items that American citizens and businesses need on a daily basis, such as low-priced apparel, toys, and electronics, as well as production necessities such as screws and valves, and so on. Perhaps this immediate impact on people’s livelihoods is the main reason behind the policy’s hasty braking.

Nevertheless, Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies such as Temu and Shein are still trembling in fear of Trump’s unpredictable style of governance. In the future, in the face of unpredictable tariff policy changes, cross-border e-commerce large enterprises will choose to enter local warehouses to reduce tariffs, but a group of cross-border e-commerce ordinary sellers are complaining that because of the lack of ability to large-volume warehousing, it will be even more affected in the future. In particular, if the United States takes the lead, will Europe and Japan follow suit? There is a trend in the European Union to remove the exemption for goods under 150 euros, and Japan has a tax-free policy for parcels under 1,000 yen in value. If the whole world adjusts the tax exemption policy for small parcels, the future days of ordinary cross-border e-commerce sellers in China will definitely not be as good as before. In response to the uncertainty of U.S. trade policy, Shein and Temu have opened distribution centers in the U.S. that allow sellers to ship their goods to the U.S. and store them in local warehouses, from which they are shipped to U.S. consumers. As they have become the largest and most monopolized supply platforms, these changes will of course drive up the price of goods, but in the absence of strong competition, it is believed that these companies are still quite capable of facing new challengers.

Who pays the price?

With the slogan “Shop like a Billionaire”, Temu is using an extremely low pricing strategy that is killing it in overseas markets. Against the backdrop of shipping overseas, Temu sells sneakers for RMB 45, glasses for RMB 13, sunglasses for RMB 8, cell phone holders for RMB 9, drones for RMB 110, and handheld vacuum cleaners for RMB 40, which is an unbelievably low price. In fact, this comes from the plight of China’s foreign trade since 2022: due to the dynamic zero and “de-risking” of China’s foreign trade suffered a super-expected decline, domestic enterprises have a large amount of inventory backlog. This backlog of inventory is better than rotting in warehouses, no matter how low the price is, as long as the payback cycle is fast. This, coupled with high inflationary pressures in Western societies after 2023, has led to a huge increase in consumer demand for cheaper goods. Against this backdrop, Temu has become the world’s second largest e-commerce company after Amazon, and behind its glittering results are dealers who are crying out for help. Shein, the same fast-fashion brand as Temu, also offers ridiculously cheap clothing. In this supply chain, a large number of laborers working in textile factories in Panyu, Guangzhou, are being squeezed – companies are squeezing social justice and the rule of law to keep costs down, and leaving all the costs to suppliers and employees.

The emergence of this phenomenon was very similar to the oppression of workers’ rights by capitalists after the Industrial Revolution. Workers migrated from the countryside to the cities, leaving the land that provided the basic living conditions, and had to rely on their labor to earn a living, without the ability to bargain with the capitalists. Eventually, social instability evolved over a long period of time, resulting in a slight improvement for workers in developed countries through the enactment of labor protection legislation by the government. Cross-border e-commerce like Temu and Shein, where the benefits go to the company and the costs are passed on to the suppliers and workers, is very unlikely to happen in developed countries. However, the same cannot be said for populous countries such as China or India.

Product Quality and Intellectual Property

Consumers may order from these Chinese e-commerce platforms to save money, but product quality is a growing concern in many countries. In addition, counterfeiting is another issue that has been cited as a major market disruptor for low-cost products in China – the protection of anonymity and low thresholds for use on the internet have made e-commerce platforms the best place to sell counterfeits, and Shein’s history of plagiarism is legion, with international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, and Zara, as well as Chinese Taobao, being some of the best sellers. Shein has a history of copying everything from international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, and Zara to popular clothing on Taobao in China, and has even been accused by the Mexican Ministry of Culture of directly copying the workmanship and patterns of the traditional Mexican embroidery, Huipil. In the face of these lawsuits, Shein seems to be unaffected by the controversy, claiming that the infringing goods were designed independently by the merchants, and that the liability and compensation are borne by the merchants, not by Shein, and that Shein’s huge profits are shared by the entire community.

Personal data becomes a commodity

What’s more, the security of personal data is a matter of great concern. Not many people are aware that when a person makes a purchase on an online platform or uses a service (such as enjoying a TikTok video or one of China’s most popular dramas), the user not only receives the service, but also becomes part of the collective data collected by the platform. These data can be used to analyze various human behaviors, and to know and predict their activities and reactions in other areas. The platforms can also use the feedback to change the services they provide to the users or the products they recommend, thus controlling the users to stay on the platforms. Therefore, if these cross-border e-commerce companies become significant suppliers of shopping to people in other countries, it can be argued that they also become a way for China to influence other countries.

For example, Temu collects more information than is necessary for online shopping, including personal biometrics (such as fingerprints) and other data. The difference between China and the West in terms of data ownership is that the West uses data through accountability systems, but Chinese companies and governments are very vague about how they will use consumer data, and you don’t know how the data you leave behind will be used.

Conclusion

Temu and Shein are two cross-border platforms that have long been under the scrutiny of Western governments due to their “over-success” in penetrating Western societies and their enormous potential to influence society. Plus, they have long been criticized for labor exploitation in their supply chains, prompting investigations into their ethical sourcing practices. Ironically, while countries like Europe and the United States are pointing fingers and blaming China for its human rights situation, their people are consuming and enjoying products produced by forced labor and low wages; especially at a time of rampant inflation, consumers in the Western world will “vote with their feet” and make their own choices whether to boycott or to comply.

Trump’s order to cancel the tariff exemption for small packages today has attracted global attention as to how much it will affect these companies, and whether it will lead to a new direction of development in the globalization of cross-border e-commerce, so let’s wait and see.

Article/Editorial Department Sameway Magazine

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