Conversations: Xueyin Zha on WeChat’s role in Australian democracy as seen from the grassroots

In this episode of Conversations, Hervé Lemahieu speaks with Xueyin Zha and Jennifer Hsu about the Chinese messaging app and the role in it plays in the democratic participation of Chinese-Australians. They discuss the inherent risks and drawbacks of WeChat, such as censorship, but also explore how it became a medium of outreach and civic engagement for Chinese-Australians during the 2021 New South Wales local elections. The conversation references Xueyin's recent Lowy Institute Analysis paper titled WeChat's role in Australian democracy: A grassroots view.

Xueyin Zha is a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University, researching the global governance of advanced technology. She is also a researcher at ANU's interdisciplinary research project: Humanising Machine Intelligence. Her current research interests span technology regulation, international politics of the digital economy, and technology's role in multiculturalism.