The language skills of Chinese Australians are underused in Australia’s public service as the country faces an increasingly complex relationship with China, according to a Lowy Institute report released on Monday. Only 2.6 percent of Australian public service employees had Chinese heritage, compared to 5.6 percent of the general Australian population, and only 2.2 percent of strategic policy roles, including the ones developing Australia’s policies on China, are filled by Australians with Chinese heritage. “This language skill deficit matters. Many key Chinese debates and documents are available only in the Chinese language,” Yun Jiang said. “For a country such as China, with its opaque and labyrinthine political structure, understanding its modern history and contemporary culture is critical as it gives valuable clues to the different interests and incentives operating within the system. Jiang, the report’s author, is a former public policy adviser in the Australian Public Service (APS). She argued that …