Election battle on Chinese apps intensifies as Liberal target crucial voters

ABC NEWS (Australia)

With early voting underway, the political campaigning has ramped up. With a particular group of voters getting extra attention. There has been a rise in activity on Chinese social media apps, as candidates look to connect with communities in critical multicultural electorates, which saw a backlash against the Liberals in 2022.

Transcript

00:00Vivian Chen and Yan Zhong are best friends and workmates.

00:08They design clothes for a local business to sell, but today it's their turn to shop.

00:17Living in the marginal Western Sydney seat of Reid, the Burwood residents have different

00:21ideas about the election issues that matter to them.

00:25More support for the education.

00:31But they stay informed the same way, through Chinese social media apps.

00:36Normally I do all the news every day.

00:38WeChat and RedNote are popular in the Australian Chinese community.

00:42Reid MP Sally Situ says they're useful tools to connect with her multicultural electorate.

00:48You wouldn't expect to be speaking to young people through the Australian newspaper.

00:53You would be speaking to them through the social media channels that they use, like Instagram

00:58and TikTok.

00:59And so the same can be said for the Chinese community.

01:02The Liberal candidate eyeing her seat includes links to the apps on his campaign posters.

01:07We're a very diverse electorate.

01:09So I need to reach out to particularly, say, the Chinese community through the social media

01:13that they use.

01:14And we're going through all available channels in that regard.

01:17Justin Zhang is one of the voters they're hoping to attract.

01:21He's glad to see more Australian MPs and candidates embracing Chinese platforms.

01:26It's good that they are exploring the new social media for new migrants like me.

01:31Because we're using both of the social medias a lot.

01:34The ReCAPTCHA research team monitors the apps for political campaigning and advertising

01:39and has recorded a surge in content in recent weeks.

01:42Some of those content, they're tailored to Chinese migrant communities.

01:47For example, content via Australian politicians going to Chinese restaurants, drinking bubble teas.

01:54The researchers say it appears one party is campaigning particularly heavily here.

01:59We've seen a higher number of political advertisement by the Liberal Party members.

02:06Since January, ReCAPTCHA has found around 220 authorised Liberal ads on Chinese platforms

02:13and around 35 promoting the Labor Party.

02:16Most of the action features candidates targeting marginal multicultural seats.

02:21The Liberals are trying to win back an important cohort of voters.

02:25In 2022, the party lost a number of key seats and barely held on to others

02:31in areas with large Chinese-Australian communities.

02:34An internal review found it was driven by backlash

02:37against the Morrison government's tough stance on China.

02:41In the Brisbane seat of Morton, Peter Dutton sat down for yum cha.

02:46In the Victorian seat of Menzies, the PM had dumplings and tea.

02:50The real-life appeal is rolling on alongside the battle on WeChat and RedKnight.

02:55How are you going?

02:56Because FaceTime is important too.

02:58The Royal-life appeal was on the sea-yo-san feature back-to-day.

03:04Our social dialogue is not free to open up a few people's inboxes.

03:06We're not free to open up their assets.

03:07Because we have a Canadian community member,

03:09We have a network of people who are being ill,

03:12and we are not free to open up our doors to the table.

03:13So we're not free to open up our doors.

03:14We're not free to open up our doors after our entire government.

03:16In 2022, the UK has been funded by a network of local operators.

03:18We're not free to open up the world.

03:20We're not free to open up your minds if we want to open up our 겁니다.

03:21We'll have a network of people who are in the middle of the world to open it.

03:22So we're not free to open up our notebook.

03:23We have a network of people who have a network of people who are to outdoorsogen

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