'#SayNoToPauline': Chinese community rally against Hanson’s ‘racist’ ideas

Chinese-Australian community members have launched a social media campaign to rally against the policies put forward by One Nation senator-elect Pauline Hanson.

Using the hashtag #SayNoToPauline, the Chinese Australian Forum is calling on people to take photos and upload them to social media, in an effort to call out Islamophobia and “racism”.

The group held a press conference in Haymarket yesterday to announce their plans to team up with the Muslim community, stating they “can empathise with the current treatment of the Arabic-Australian community”.

President Kenrick Cheah said the organisation  has campaigned for more than 30 years on the issues of race and discrimination.

“The campaign is raising awareness that Islamophobia is wrong… racism and discrimination of any kind are wrong and the reason we came out yesterday, although we aren’t at the brunt of the attacks this time, we [the Chinese community] remembers when it was in the 1990s,” Mr Cheah told 9news.com.au.

“It’s basically a peaceful way to allow people to reject her racist remarks.”

Mr Cheah said the group’s Facebook has been flooded with Pauline Hanson supporters “saying we should go back to our country” but otherwise, the response to the campaign had been “mostly positive”.

Ms Hanson caused a furore nearly two decades ago when she said Asian people were “swamping” the suburbs.

She has defended her anti-Muslim policies which include a royal commission into Islam.