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Australia in the Asian Century
The Australia in the Asian Century White Paper
The Australian Government has commissioned a White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century (opens in a new window) to consider the likely economic and strategic changes in the region, and what more can be done to position Australia in Asia. The White Paper aims to deepen ties with other countries in Asia through measures such as lifting Australia’s GDP, bolstering its universities, and encouraging the teaching of Asian languages in schools.
The Institute for Culture and Society researches widely in the areas covered by the White Paper. Dr Tim Winter, Professor David Rowe and Professor Brett Neilson, who work extensively in these areas, respond to the White Paper below.
ICS researchers respond to the White Paper
Dr Tim Winter has studied developing countries in Asia, with projects currently being pursued in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
‘The Asian century represents one of the most important challenges over the coming decades as Australia is forced to shift its focus from the resources sector towards more sophisticated forms of sustainable engagement,’ he says.
‘The White Paper correctly identifies the massive growth in middle class consumption as a key factor shaping Asia's rise, and Australia is well positioned to benefit economically from this trend through tourism, manufacturing, education, and financial services.’
‘But long term economic uncertainties point towards the need for much more sophisticated forms of engagement, on multiple fronts and with multiple countries, so it’s encouraging to see the government making preparations to deepen our understanding of the region as a whole.’
Dr Winter says that despite the optimism, the rise of Asia will undoubtedly see an acceleration in highly complex problems.
‘Beyond the media coverage of 'global cities' like Tokyo, Shanghai or Singapore, thousands of mid and small level cities are presented with the mounting pressures associated with ever rising populations and straining infrastructures.’
‘Technological remedies will be of limited value, developing the cultural intelligence necessary for addressing environmental challenges or maintaining fair and cohesive societies is required urgently.’
‘If Australia is to contribute to such areas, significant investment needs to be made into the education infrastructure here and programmes of knowledge exchange that can inform policy across the region.’
Professor David Rowe, who has published extensively in the areas of media and popular culture, responds to the White Paper in terms of sport and media.
‘The White Paper discusses the importance of sport, especially football (soccer) diplomacy in Asia. Since Australia left Oceania for the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, there has been a much closer involvement with Asia.’
‘However, it is naive to believe that just playing sport against other Asian nations inevitably improves relationships with them. Sport is a very emotionally charged area, and can be the catalyst for exposing regional political tensions. For example, the 2008 Harbhajan Singh-Andrew Symonds affair in cricket registered at a political level in Australia-India relations. Sport is not the cause of such tensions, but it provides a ready-made popular focus for them,’ Professor Rowe says. ‘It’s not hard to imagine, for instance, in some circumstances Chinese nationalist concerns about Australia’s military alliance with the United States being registered in angry protests at a football match in Beijing’s Workers Stadium. These have occurred before in football matches against Japan, with whom China has a historically difficult relationship. Therefore, the advantages and periodic difficulties occasioned by deeper regional sporting ties have to be appreciated.’
‘On the other hand, Australia hosting the Asian Cup in 2015 presents an opportunity to use mega sport events to deepen international connections, as occurred to a degree with the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Follow through – the legacy – is always an issue with such events, as it has been regarding the loss of connective impetus post-Sydney 2000 in many areas, although Australia has successfully exported its skills in event logistics, management, stadium design, and so on. With Qatar hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the “world game” is especially well placed to develop in a region where many domestic national football competitions currently suffer because of an Asian middle-class fixation on the English Premier League. Australia can play its role, then, in counteracting this Western sporting cultural imperialism.’
‘In terms of the media, the White Paper expects the ABC and SBS as public service media organisations to carry a significant load in covering Australia’s connections to the Asia region. A more “hands off” approach is understandably taken regarding the commercial media industry and so-called “third parties”, including universities who train journalists and do media research. There is always some sensitivity regarding countries using their media to project their national image and to promote change in other countries, especially those in Asia with very different political and media systems to Australia. It will, therefore, be important that the Australian media detach themselves from any suspicion that they are state-directed entities or simply promoters of Australian business interests.’
‘It is ironic that at a time when Australia’s “legacy” commercial media are in crisis, with massive financial losses and job shedding, that Australia should be held up as an example in a region where those same media are still developing and flourishing. Nonetheless, Australia does have a role to play in fostering an open, informed regional media. Its public service media organisations, the ABC and SBS, which have been rather unfashionable in an era of media privatisation, are very well placed, if suitably funded, to cover the region in all its diversity through innovative news, information and entertainment content, technologies and audience relations’.
Professor Brett Neilson, who is working on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Culture in Transition: Creative Labour and Social Mobilities in the Asian Century, takes up the White Paper's emphasis on the need for Australian businesses to create links into regional and global supply chains. The document identifies this both as an economic opportunity but also as necessary to build resilience in the Australian economy. Professor Neilson however, questions the cultural implications of this ambition.
‘The White Paper switches between the terms supply chain, value chain and production chain, although it prefers value chain. Leaving aside debates in economic geography that attribute quite different meaning to these terms, research shows that working populations have radically different cultural understandings of how their activities feed into supply chains. They also understand the activities of others in the chain in radically different ways than those populations see their own activities. Diverse understandings and misunderstandings are actually essential to the workings of supply chains and indeed central to their capacity to produce value.’
Professor Neilson also wonders how we read this account of how supply chains work against those sections of the White Paper that seek to promote deeper and broader cultural links with Asia through public diplomacy, cultural exchange, language training, and so on.
‘The White Paper is quite careful to suggest that cultural and social engagement with Asia is beneficial in its own right but it’s also not entirely disinvested from the narrative that the building of Asia-relevant cultural capabilities is primarily useful for economic reasons. This raises important questions for social and cultural researchers in Australia with an intrinsic commitment to the value of cultural exchange, translation and research collaboration.’
