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Ralph Jennings

Australian comedian Jenny Tian set off a wave of deep laughter across an Adelaide audience at a recent comedy festival by saying she had tired of democracy at home. So, Tian explained, she moved to the US to give “fascism” a whirl instead.
The 30-year-old showbiz pro was born to Chinese parents, making her race a rarity in Western stand-up comedy. But the crowd was a near sell-out.
I saw Tian’s March performance during a visiting media tour of Australia after days of meetings with national officials and chats with academics.
I found Tian’s joke to be a metaphor for Australia’s world outlook in 2026: resentment towards the US and a warming towards China.
US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have raised too many doubts for Australia over the past 14 months about where to ship exports, such as the wine I was served almost every night during the trip.
Now the Iran war is also fanning a near-panic about bottlenecks in a global supply chain that ends with Australian farmers – according to snippets of a legislative debate we heard at a parliament session.
As a result, Australians feel a “growing reservation towards Trump”, said He Baogang, an Academy of Social Sciences in Australia fellow who we met at a round-table chat.
I’m American and on the trip avoided sharing my view on US politics – part of our professional ethic as journalists.

But Australians heard my accent and wondered. As one trade association head informed me at a lunch meeting, followed by hearty anti-Washington chatter: “You sound like you may be from North America.”
China for its part has quit what one scholar we met called A$20 billion worth of “economic coercion”. She meant Chinese tariffs and other barriers against top Australian exports, such as wine, barley, beef and lobsters.
Beijing restricted those exports in 2020 after Australia urged China to investigate the origin of Covid-19, which was first reported in Wuhan.
Those Australian products are trading normally again, our government contacts told us, and other exporters are giving China a go now because of its market size.
The Archie Rose distillery, for example, announced after a bottomless taste tour at its sprawling Sydney plant that it will start selling gins and whiskies in China by the end of 2026.
Chinese companies for their part have invested in at least three major Australian solar and wind projects. An energy official said China had contributed “billions” to wind power alone, while Chinese electric vehicles are taking on Tesla in the streets.
Chinese student numbers are rising at Australian universities – possibly because they’re deterred by US immigration controls affecting foreign students.


And the country’s tourism promotion agency has spun off a separate marketing campaign for Chinese visitors, whose ranks grew 21 per cent over the year ending in May to 947,000.
“In terms of China’s role in the region, I think the region as a whole looks to China, looks at its development,” South Australian Governor Frances Adamson told our group of Hong Kong-based reporters at her mansion-esque workplace.
Today’s views mark a switcheroo (unrelated to the kangaroo) from the prevailing views towards China and the US of five years ago.
Then, under former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, the country’s ties with Washington were described as strategic and going deeper in response to what both governments saw as a more assertive China. A lot of Australians considered China to be a security threat at that point.
It’s the US that’s unsafe, Jenny Tian reminded us.
While looking for dates in New York City, she ran across the Citizen App. The app, to her surprise, tells users what criminals are up to in their neighbourhoods. Australia doesn’t have it.
Another explosion of guffaws ripped through the audience.


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China-Australia relations

An Australian tour revealed the nation’s growing sentiment of warming to China, while Trump’s tariffs and foreign policy have increasingly seen the US viewed with suspicion or as ‘unsafe’. Photo: AP

Australian comedian Jenny Tian quips about the US during an act in Adelaide. Photo: handout

‘Demand shock’: China cannot escape the impact of a long Iran war, analyst warns

The US-Israel war on Iran could reduce demand for fuel in Southeast Asia, indirectly hurting Chinese oil refineries. Photo: Getty Images

Denis Depoux, global managing director of Roland Berger, speaks at the Boao Forum for Asia in southern China’s Hainan province. Photo: Getty Images

China still on track to supplant US as world’s No 1 economy in 10 years: academic

China is still on course to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy in 10 years, according to Li Cheng, a professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: Shutterstock

Li Cheng, a professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong, speaks during a World Economic Forum event in 2024. Photo: World Economic Forum

Gary Liu and Liu Xiaochun on what role stablecoins could play in China and the US

Illustration: Henry Wong

Currency exchange shops like this one in Causeway Bay, which has a bank vault painted on its gate, may become more popular as Hong Kong prepares to embrace stablecoins. Photo: Jelly Tse

Global South to bear the brunt of Strait of Hormuz crisis amid worsening food scarcity

The Global South could face “heavy collateral damage” as a result of the deepening Strait of Hormuz crisis, the head of the International Chamber of Commerce said. Photo: AFP

How China’s tech transformation is putting the ‘world’s factory’ in a tough spot

Everwin Toys’ factory sits empty in Dongguan, Guangdong province, after the company shut the facility in December. About 2,000 people used to work at the facility. Photo: He Huifeng

Businesses near the Everwin Toys factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, have shut down since the facility’s closure. Photo: He Huifeng

Dongguan has long been known as the “world’s factory” due to its status as a hub for export manufacturing. Photo: He Huifeng

Economy

China Economy

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Aussie comedian exposes the truth about nation’s feelings towards US president, democracy and public safety


Aussie comedian exposes the truth about nation’s feelings towards US president, democracy and public safety.


Australia’s 180-degree shift from 5 years ago: China in favour; US out

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Aussie comedian exposes the truth about nation’s feelings towards US president, democracy and public safety

Aussie comedian exposes the truth about nation’s feelings towards US president, democracy and public safety