FACT CHECK: No, Australian government is not reviewing Chinese permanent visas
By Jim McManagan in London
WHAT WAS CLAIMED : Australia is reviewing all Chinese permanent resident visas going back ten years.
OUR VERDICT : The government is not conducting a visa review targeting Chinese nationals.
AAP FACTCHECK - Australia is not reviewing permanent residency visas granted to Chinese nationals over the last 10 years, despite claims online.
The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed the claim is false, and AAP FactCheck found no credible reporting or government statements about such a review.
Disinformation experts say the claim likely originates in a social media post by a Shanghai-based migration consulting firm.
The claim appears in a Facebook post that features a screenshot of what appears to be an Australian government ImmiAccount portal.
"Immigration Australia! Massive countdown 10 year visa!! Chinese??? Chinese people? Taiwan should follow up!!!", the translated caption says.
The post links to a YouTube video where a man claims, also in Mandarin, that the immigration department is conducting a mass crackdown on Chinese nationals who were granted permanent residency over the past decade.
He says many Chinese nationals have had permanent residency for many years, but claims this group is now at serious risk.
The man alleges that visas are being cancelled and holders are being deported due to irregularities, such as partner visa fraud or historical inconsistencies in immigration paperwork.
He goes on to speculate that Chinese nationals who have already become Australian citizens might still face punishment if past visa fraud is discovered.
Stevie Zhang, a researcher at RECapture, a University of Melbourne team that monitors disinformation in Chinese-Australian communities, summarised the YouTube video in English for AAP FactCheck.
They said the video and graphics in the post appear to be based on a single post on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote.
The graphic in the post, from a Shanghai-based migration consultancy, has been reused in many videos and even Chinese-language news stories online.
"Given that a lot of this information is all anecdotal from one singular immigration consultancy, it's unclear how widespread this issue of visas being cancelled actually is, and also how concentrated it is happening among Chinese diaspora compared to other immigrant groups," the RECapture researcher told AAP FactCheck.
"I'm not entirely sure where they got the '10 years' number from."
The home affairs department, which is in caretaker mode ahead of the May 3 election, said the claim was inaccurate.
"The claim of a retrospective 10-year visa review being circulated on various social media sites is false," a spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
The Facebook post appeared three days before the department entered pre-election caretaker mode.
Caretaking conventions instruct all government departments to refrain from making policy decisions, such as changes to policies or actions that could be perceived as "politically contentious."
AAP FactCheck was also unable to find any credible reporting or government announcements regarding a visa review targeting Chinese nationals or any general retrospective visa reviews.
The Guardian previously reported that the false claim had gained traction on RedNote.
Analysis from RECapture and US-based social media analytics company Graphika found that China-based migration consultants had likely amplified the claim.
Dr Fan Yang, another RECapture researcher, said such narratives were promoted by immigration, education, and real estate agencies both in and outside Australia, which benefited from uncertainty.
"The prevailing distrust may be exacerbated by the absence of official voices on Chinese-language social media platforms," she told AAP FactCheck.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
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