The recent turbulence of Australia–China relations had a negative impact to the Chinese Australian community, being increasingly targeted by xenophobic attitudes.

There were early links between China and Australia when Macau and Canton were used as an important trading ports with the fledgling colony.

Early 19th Century migration was in limited numbers and sporadic, primarily those who came in this period were free merchants or adventurers and, the more common, indentured labourers.

[6] Due to the widespread racist sentiments in parliament and on the goldfields, the first of many immigration restrictions and Chinese targeting laws was passed in late 1855.

However, due to the long, poorly regulated borders between the colonies of Australia the numbers of Chinese on the goldfields continued to swell.

After the gold rushes the numbers of Chinese living in the cities swelled and their businesses and industries contributed much to growth of Melbourne and Sydney in the late 19th century.

Mei Quong Tart and Lowe Kong Meng were prominent business figures in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

[7] This gender imbalance meant that Chinese men married women of European descent but many had it in their hearts to return to China.

There were over 200 people with Chinese heritage who fought for Australia in World War I, including the decorated sniper Billy Sing.

The final end of the White Australia Policy from the 1960s saw new arrivals from the Chinese diaspora and for the first time significant numbers from non-Cantonese speaking parts of China.

After the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, then-Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, allowed students from China to settle in Australia permanently.

The aftermath of May 1998 riots of Indonesia saw sizeable influx of Chinese Indonesians fleeing persecution in their home country for Australia.

[9] China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) is now the third largest foreign birthplace for Australian residents, after England and New Zealand.

[3] There are also a large number of persons of Chinese ancestry among those born in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In a 2004 study on the intermarriage pattern in Australia, the proportion of second-generation Chinese Australians with spouses of Anglo-Celtic ancestry was approximately 21% and for third generation it was 68%.

Many Chinese Australians from other areas speak Tagalog (Philippines), Malay (Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei), Vietnamese, Thai, and Portuguese (Macau) as additional languages.

[25] In the 2022 Australian federal election, electorates with a higher concentration of Chinese-Australian voters experienced larger swings against the Coalition compared to other electorates; in the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry, the swing against the Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis was 6.6 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in other seats.

[27] In the 2023 New South Wales state election, the top 10 electorates in terms of Chinese ancestry all saw big swings to Labor.

[29][30] The federal electorate with the highest number of Chinese Australians is the Division of Chisholm in Melbourne, which has been held by the Labor Party since 2022.

Chinese Australians born overseas reported high educational attainment with over 50% of them holding at least bachelor's degree.

[43] In 2006, the median individual weekly income for Chinese-born Australians aged 15 years and over was $242, compared with $431 for all overseas-born and $488 for all Australia-born.

[33] In 2006, the median individual weekly income for Hong Kong-born Australians aged 15 years and over was $425, compared with $431 for all overseas-born and $488 for all Australia-born.