York ‘censors’ its graduation ceremony over China protest

A TOP university has been accused of censoring its graduation ceremony to avoid offending Chinese students who pay vast sums to attend.

Kyle Ma held up a flag saying ‘Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times’ – a slogan used by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong – at the University of York graduation in February.

Mr Ma said the flag was a symbol of solidarity with protesters after the Chinese Communist Party launched a crackdown.

But the official livestream of the event cut out when he unveiled the flag – with the video on the university’s YouTube page not including him at all. Mr Ma informed university officials of his intention to protest but was told his flag could ‘undermine this institutional position of mutual respect’.

The incident comes after revelations that the university was one of a number of institutions to secretly host Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, last year, who told Chinese students to uphold the teachings of President Xi Jinping.

Luke De Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on

China, told the Mail: ‘During the 2019 protests, Hong Kong students clashed with those from Mainland China repeatedly on UK campuses. In every case, the university failed to stick up for those risking their lives to defend democracy.

‘This will continue until we get to grips with our dependency on foreign student fees. Those who claim it hasn’t hit academic freedom need to remove their heads from the sand.’ Following the flag episode, revealed by the i newspaper, a University of York spokesman said: ‘While we recognise that students do wear or hold protest materials... it is protocol to change camera angles during live broadcasts if there is potential disruption.’

Last year a report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found that China had sought to ‘monitor and control Chinese students’ behaviour’ by infiltrating higher education facilities.

A Government spokesman said: ‘We recognise concerns about overseas interference in our universities which is why we are reviewing how we support our academic sector.’