In a busy Box Hill shopping centre in Melbourne's east, former prime minister Kevin Rudd and local Labor candidate Carina Garland walk surrounded by cameras, microphones and a sea of volunteers in red.
In the flurry of excitement, some onlookers run up to the pair to take a selfie, or laugh along as Mr Rudd orders frozen dumplings from a local shopkeeper in fluent Mandarin.
Others stare with a hint of confusion on their faces.
Not everyone recognises the former prime minister at first, but one middle-aged man shouts to the crowd in Mandarin: "This is Kevin Rudd"!
The elder statesman has been brought in to try to sway voters in Chisholm, one of the most marginal seats in the country.
It was won by just 1,090 votes (or 0.5 per cent) in 2019 by Hong Kong-born Liberal Gladys Liu, who defeated Labor's Taiwanese-born candidate Jennifer Yang.
Ms Liu became the first overseas-born Chinese woman to win a seat in the federal parliament's lower house.
With almost one in five people in the electorate having Chinese ancestry, the Chinese community could have a big say in who wins the seat.
But the "Chinese community" covers a broad range of experiences and views, and three weeks out from election day, many are still undecided.
Xia Yang and Qingming Liu came to Australia from China more than three decades ago and have lived in the area for nearly 20 years.
Mr Liu is still on the fence about where his vote will go on May 21.
"Traditionally, I am a swing voter," he said.
His wife is more certain, but is leaving the door open for a last-minute switch.
"I mostly made up my mind, but my decision still may change in the end," Ms Yang said.
Is rhetoric of a looming 'China threat' on voters' minds?
Defence Minister Peter Dutton's Anzac Day remarks have put national security back in the spotlight, for some.
"The only way you can preserve peace is to prepare for war, and to be strong as a country," Mr Dutton said.
Mr Dutton added Australia needed to "stare down any act of aggression" and has repeatedly suggested China is on a similar path to Germany in the 1930s before World War II.
A recent pact signed between Beijing and Honiara also has the government concerned, and anti-racism advocates point out the warmongering rhetoric can take a toll on local communities.
J Lee, who migrated to Australia from Hong Kong in the 1990s, did not think the call to prepare for war was an exaggeration.
"If we are not prepared, we cannot rely on other countries to protect us," he said.
He asked not to give his full first name for the safety of family members still in Hong Kong, where Beijing's national security law has significantly curtailed freedoms.
Mr Lee, who has lived in Glen Waverley for a decade, said while the Liberal party's stance on China resonated with him, there was an array of views within the electorate.
"I would say the views are very diverse. When we are talking about the Chinese community, we have people from Mainland China, from Taiwan, from Hong Kong, from Macau, and Malaysia, Singapore … sometimes [they're] polarised," he said.
Ms Yang hoped that whether Labor or the Coalition won the election, Australia would forge its own path when it came to China.
"I hope Australian leaders have [their] own authentic defence policy [and] don't just follow other countries," she said.
"Surely you must have a sense of being alarmed when people with different intentions are in your backyard. But it's not very likely to be a fierce physical fight.
"Let's hope politicians are wise enough to lead this country out of its troubles."
When asked about China and national security, Mr Rudd said: "What we've found here on the ground is all these folks who are voting are Australians first. They understand that we put Australia's national interest and Australian national values first."
Another factor in the tightly-contested seat is that the electorate's boundaries were re-drawn last year — nudging the Liberal margin slightly down from 0.6 per cent to 0.5 per cent.
Luxin Liu, a long-time China watcher and Box Hill resident, was a Chisholm voter until the redistribution.
But he's paying close attention to his old electorate.
Dr Liu said while many in the Chinese community did not believe Mr Dutton's remarks about China, he personally thought it was wise to be prepared.
"[The] debate about the Chinese threat to Australia [and the] China-Solomon Islands deal in the South Pacific will definitely have some impacts on how the community [is] going to vote. But it is not a decisive factor."
'I can't tell the difference'
Many people on the streets of Chisholm said the rhetoric around a potential China threat was not an issue they were interested in.
"We only care about our day-to-day life," one mother with a toddler said in Mandarin.
Instead, many people said their top election issue was the post-lockdown economic recovery, education, welfare and taxation, and opening the borders further for skilled migration.
One voter described the national security issue as an ongoing one, while another said the topic of China was too sensitive to comment on.
One disgruntled lifetime Liberal voter said he did not yet know where his vote would go next month.
"For the first time ever I'm undecided," he said.
He described Labor's policies on China as "amazingly similar or the same as the Coalition".
"I can't tell the difference," he said.
Politicians 'promise everything but have done nothing'
Labor has launched an attack ad aimed at Ms Liu, based on reports that some political donors linked to her were deemed a national security risk.
The ad also highlighted a controversy over a misleading Liberal Party sign during the 2019 election, in the same purple colour as the Australian Electoral Commission, that appeared to translate as the "correct way" to vote was Liberal.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the ad was "racist", but Labor's Penny Wong defended it, saying there were questions Ms Liu had to answer.
"I am a proud Australian citizen and won't be distracted from my mission of delivering for the residents of Chisholm by a desperate and dishonest campaign by Labor," Ms Liu said in a statement.
On the campaign trail, her challenger Carina Garland, who is of Italian background, said the electorate is one of the most multicultural communities in the country.
"One of the greatest strengths of Australia is the way that we've historically embraced multiculturalism, and I think we need a change in leadership to make that really strong," she said.
One undecided Chisholm resident said he would prefer to not vote for anyone, given the current state of politics.
"[It's] very divisive, this type of election campaign. I really don't like the way the politics goes."
