Australian politicians are increasingly using Chinese social media platforms like Xiaohongshu to connect with Chinese-Australian communities ahead of the federal election on May 3.

Key electorates such as Bennelong and Chisholm, which have large populations of Chinese ancestry, are seeing MPs like Jerome Laxale leverage these platforms.

Laxale has sent out 30,000 red envelopes with QR codes linking to his Xiaohongshu and WeChat accounts. He emphasized, “If you want to communicate with your electorate, you need to go where your electorate are.”

The Liberal Party is also working to rebuild connections with Chinese-Australian voters, especially after a 6.6% shift away from them in the 2022 election.