Accepted author manuscript, 672 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The securitization of 'Chinese influence' in Australia
AU - Chubb, Andrew
PY - 2023/1/31
Y1 - 2023/1/31
N2 - This article traces the emergence of ‘Chinese influence’ as a conceptual touchstone of Australia’s public policy discourse in 2017–2018. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) efforts to influence politics abroad had been well documented since the 2000s and cannot explain the timing of their securitization from mid-2017. It was through the formation of a securitizing coalition of intelligence officials, politicians, and journalists that the PRC as a source of existential threats gained policy traction. But as the coalition expanded from security agencies to politicians and the media, the scope of the threat expanded from an initial concern with PRC party-state activity to the securitization of a much wider array of state and non-state activities under the ambiguous label ‘Chinese influence.
AB - This article traces the emergence of ‘Chinese influence’ as a conceptual touchstone of Australia’s public policy discourse in 2017–2018. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) efforts to influence politics abroad had been well documented since the 2000s and cannot explain the timing of their securitization from mid-2017. It was through the formation of a securitizing coalition of intelligence officials, politicians, and journalists that the PRC as a source of existential threats gained policy traction. But as the coalition expanded from security agencies to politicians and the media, the scope of the threat expanded from an initial concern with PRC party-state activity to the securitization of a much wider array of state and non-state activities under the ambiguous label ‘Chinese influence.
KW - securitization
KW - Australia-China relations
KW - Chinese foreign policy
KW - security
KW - intelligence
KW - International relations
KW - China
U2 - 10.1080/10670564.2022.2052437
DO - 10.1080/10670564.2022.2052437
M3 - Journal article
VL - 32
SP - 17
EP - 34
JO - Journal of Contemporary China
JF - Journal of Contemporary China
SN - 1067-0564
IS - 139
ER -