Over four decades, Australian universities developed strong teaching and research ties with China. But a wave of fear-driven policies and rising national security pressures has reshaped those relationships. Are we witnessing a retreat from engagement – or the start of a new era?

A recent article by emeritus professor Ian Ramsay from Melbourne University highlighted influential reports stressing an erosion of trust within and towards Australian universities.

A more detailed investigation of the challenges faced by Australian universities is presented in a spirited new book by the vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University, George Williams: Aiming Higher: Universities and Australia’s Future. Williams also emphasises the erosion of trust in universities observing that their “social licence” is now in question.

Thus far, the shifting nature of Australian universities’ offshore relationships – in particular, with China - have been less methodically examined.

How it used to be

In late 1972, the new Whitlam Government in Canberra recognised the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal government of China. In the years that followed, Australian universities established remarkably strong teaching and research relationships with China.

The first students began arriving in Australia from China in the early 1970s. Significant growth in onshore Chinese student numbers attending a wide range of Australian tertiary institutions soon followed. By 1989, there were around 18,000 PRC students in Australia. This number soon swelled to over 30,000. By 2018 the total number exceeded 200,000.

It was not long before China and Asian-related research centres were springing up within Australian universities focused, for example, on the hard sciences, engineering and social science. Collaborative research programs with Chinese and other Asian universities were also regularly established.

A conspicuous example was the establishment of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne. Created to conduct research on Asian legal systems, including those in Japan and China, it is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The current director, professor Sarah Biddulph, recently explained how: “At the beginning, the Centre was focused on establishing a cohort of Asian-literate lawyers.” Moreover, its mission has always been to deepen Australia’s engagement with Asia, given that: “We live in a world where our default position cannot be ignorance and suspicion.”

A turning point

In the 1990s, US President Bill Clinton was a primary advocate of convergence theory, which argued that by integrating China into global systems, including the WTO, this would foster gradual political liberalisation and an eventual convergence with........

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