Dancing with the Dragon: Australia's Diplomatic Relations with China (1901-1941)

Abstract

By using little known primary sources in Chinese and English, this thesis will discuss Australia’s diplomatic relations with China, between 1901 and 1941. In March 1909, Liang Lanxun, China’s first consul-general arrived in Melbourne, Australia. Liang’s mission was to promote trade between China and Australia and as well to study the racial relations between Chinese and Australians. In 1921, Edward Little was appointed as Australia’s first trade commissioner in Shanghai, China. In 1929, the Chinese consulate moved from Melbourne to Sydney, due to the fact that Sydney had become the centre of the Chinese communities in the Oceania. I suggest that the Great Depression and the Second World War (Japan's expansion in the Pacific) forced Australian policy-makers to reconsider Australia’s geo-political position in the world. This is the first detailed research that treats Chinese diplomats in Australia and Australian diplomats in China between 1901 and 1941 as key historical subjects. In this thesis, I argue that Chinese diplomats used trade as a tool to fight against the White Australia policy between 1909 and 1941. I further argue Australia was more intertwined and connected with Asia, in this period than the existing literature suggested.