Description of impact *
Invited to the roundtable discussion and contribute to the report prepared by the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The report "sets the foundation for a national conversation around how Australia can best pursue its interests, including the handling of risk, by knowing China better."The research behind the report uncovers areas of unacknowledged strength in Australia's research on China, including in health and medicine, humanities, and social sciences. It also found critical gaps in Australia's China knowledge capability that must be addressed, including:
Competitive grant funding of China research has been declining for 12 years.
A decline in PhDs on China since 2007 supports experts' concerns about the pipeline of new talent.
Honours in China studies, which once nurtured critical Australian expertise, is not keeping pace with Australia's needs.
Emerging Australian talent, including many Chinese heritage Australians, is gravitating towards technical language qualifications, rather than the critical study of China.
Our report finds Australia's direct knowledge of China will get worse if left to develop along current lines. It highlights the need for ongoing, coordinated action, centred on world-class Australian scholarship from Australia’s community of China observers and practitioners, universities, and governments in order to build Australia’s China knowledge capability for the long term.
This timely report is intended as a resource for those with a stake in the China relationship across the university, government, corporate and community sectors to consider a new agenda for building a sovereign China knowledge capability.
The report is expected to have policy impact on the higher education and research.
https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/is-australia-in-the-dark-about-its-most-powerful-neighbours-20230308-p5cqak
The report has been cited in the Financial Review the next day when it was released (09/03/2023): "Is Australia in the dark about its most powerful neighbours?-A deeper understanding of China, including how China sees itself, is critical to our ability to comprehend the dynamics of the multipolar global environment." (Peter Varghese and Joseph Lo Bianco)
| Category of impact | Policy impacts, Society impacts |
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