After the Second World War, the United States, as the only country that was not affected by the war, rose to become the world’s policeman. The United States and the Soviet Union fought the Cold War under the Iron Curtain until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the United States became the world’s political, economic, and military hegemony. 30 years later, President Donald Trump has reintroduced isolationism, and the rest of the world is adjusting its national policies in the face of this new era. The European countries have proposed an 840 billion euro rearmament program in the future, realizing that they can no longer rely on the US military protection and enjoy the “free lunch” that the US has provided for many years. Australia is the only English-speaking multicultural country in the Asia-Pacific region with a Western democratic system, and it will also have to think about and redeploy strategies to protect its national security, foreign affairs, economy and trade, and social development. As a Chinese immigrant, who is an important ethnic group in Australian society, I believe that Australia has an important role to play in this new era. I will share my views with readers in this column.
Western countries give up their influence
Before World War II, the West dominated the development of many countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia through colonial expansion. During this period, Western countries dominated the world militarily. The invasion and bullying of China by the Western powers in modern Chinese history is a familiar part of modern Chinese history. The small European countries only sent a small number of expeditionary troops to China and easily defeated the corrupt Qing Dynasty government and seized a large amount of China’s resources. Hong Kong, as the Western countries’ entry point to China, developed into the richest free port in the world under the British rule, and became a strategic city for the Western countries to influence China.
During this period, Western missionaries followed the merchants to other parts of the world, but the Christian culture did not have a deep impact on these countries. However, in Hong Kong under British rule, the selfless contributions of many missionaries in the areas of education, medical and health care, and social development have influenced the people of Hong Kong today. This can also be seen as the influence of non-state institutions in western societies.
After the Second World War, the British Empire saw that the development of colonies did not bring long-term economic benefits to the British people, and on the contrary, the country had to spend a lot of military and economic power, so it implemented the decolonization policy. In order to maintain Britain’s image and influence as a great power, Britain also maintained contact and cooperation with these former colonial powers. In the beginning, the Commonwealth organizations played a role, and Australia also played an important role. However, as time passed and these countries focused on geopolitics and development, the Commonwealth is no longer as influential as it was decades ago. Countries that once valued cooperation with Western societies are no longer interested in Western culture and development.
Redistribution of Information Power
Undoubtedly, after the Second World War, information plays an important role in the development of any society, the direction of its economy, world politics and national defense strategies. Since the middle of the last century, radio and television broadcasting have become the most penetrating information media, and global broadcasting is regarded as the most influential information machine in propaganda and culture. Before World War II, the BBC broadcasted globally, symbolizing the promotion of British culture and values. After Britain’s post-war decolonization, the country’s power declined drastically, and the United States took advantage of the situation to rise, the Voice of America (VOA) broadcast in different languages to promote the United States’ views on world affairs through radio broadcasts in different countries around the world. In the 1990s, the U.S. established Radio Free Asia (RFA) to promote Western views on the development of democratic societies and values to Asian countries in the midst of political and economic growth.
During the Cold War, the BBC and VOA played an important role in the world. Through these media, people in totalitarian countries still have some opportunities to access information about democratic and free countries. When the people of these countries realize the progress and development of the western society, they would naturally ask the government to keep up with the development of the western society, culture and system. The phenomenon of globalization has been driven by the interaction of people from different countries and the development of the aviation industry. During the past few decades, many Asian countries have achieved rapid economic development through globalization, and the institutions of these countries have also tended to democratize to a certain extent.
However, there has been a decline in support in the United States and the United Kingdom for maintaining a media that influences other countries. For no other reason than that these media do not seem to be directly contributing to the lives of the people of the United States or the United Kingdom. And naturally, the messages they focus on are not relevant to the lives of the American and British people, so they are not taken seriously. It is easy for politicians who are trying to win votes through elections to feel that it is only natural for them to stop these ideological services in response to the demands of their constituents.
The situation is different in two totalitarian communist countries, China and Russia. Since China’s economic development took off, it has attached great importance to “grand foreign propaganda”, i.e., to publicize China’s development and the success of its social system to the whole world. The first step was to gain the recognition and support of the Chinese diaspora outside of China, and now it is to publicize the superiority of China’s system over Western democracies to the rest of the world. The aim is clearly to expand China’s influence in the world through media publicity.
Australia’s Information Influence
Australia has long been recognized as a major power in the Western Pacific region and has played an influential role as a leader in the region. For many years, Australia has provided a wide range of livelihood assistance and broadcasting information to Pacific Island countries. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has been providing regular information broadcasts in different languages to the Pacific Islands for many years, and through this, it has established economic, cultural and educational cooperation with the people of these countries. Obviously, because Australia maintains good communication and cooperation with the neighboring countries, the Western Pacific island countries maintain close relations with Australia, which makes Australians feel extremely safe. In recent years, Australia’s state support to this region has been drastically reduced, and ABC shortwave broadcasting stopped years ago in favor of providing services to local radio stations through the Internet. It can be argued that the Australian government has neglected the influence it has built up in these countries through the provision of information.
On the other hand, China’s “Great Outreach” has been bearing fruit in the region in recent years. The fact that China International Radio has been providing radio programs in the Western Pacific region is also reflected in the recent shift of these countries towards establishing diplomatic relations and economic cooperation with China. 2022, when Penny Wong became Minister for Foreign Affairs, she immediately travelled to the Pacific Island countries, indicating that the Australian government has become concerned that Australia’s influence on these countries is not what it used to be.
In order to maintain Australia’s influence in the region, the Australian government must not only re-establish cooperation, support and exchanges with the countries in the region, but it must also realize that there is a strong need to resume advocating Western values of freedom and democracy in the region. The establishment of a media that reflects these values in the Western Pacific region is on the government’s agenda again.
The Advantages of a Multicultural Society
Less than two months after taking office, President Trump has drastically halted the provision of information services to the world, citing a reduction in spending and the use of these organizations by other governments to infiltrate and exploit them. In the face of the decline of Western information influence, I believe the Australian government will reevaluate how it can strengthen its influence in the region.
Although Australia has a small population and is not in a position to establish a system such as the BBC or VOA, it still has a major advantage in that it has developed an ethnic broadcasting policy more than 50 years ago, encouraging ethnic minorities in Australia to broadcast in their own languages, and becoming a community force to maintain these ethnic communities. Nowadays, there are more than 800 ethnic radio broadcasting programs in cities and towns in Australia, and there are also many programs for the Western Pacific Island communities.
If the Australian government develops information channels for these ethnic communities, Australia could easily establish an information center in the region to promote the values of a western democratic society. However, whether this challenge can be met will depend on the foresight of Australia’s political leaders to see the benefits of such an investment for the Australian community.
Mr. Raymond Chow