Chinese students are praised as patriots for attacking protesters
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AS STUDENT protests began to spread to other cities in the region, Chinese students who have disrupted demonstrations have received praise from the authorities on the mainland for their ‘patriotism’.
In one confrontation posted on social media, hundreds of Chinese students forcefully disrupt a pro-Hong Kong democracy rally while a speaker blasts out their national anthem.
A young man disguised by a black face mask tears up a rally poster and throws it to the ground. Security guards hover nervously in between the two groups before inevitable violent skirmishes break out.
In another ugly scene, three Chinese men round on a female student staging a small demonstration to support Hong Kong’s protests. They aggressively demand that she speak Mandarin and tell her to find another citizenship if she does not want to be Chinese.
“You are not human, you f------ stupid pig,” says one of incensed men. Moments later one brushes against her and she falls to the ground.
The clips from videos that went viral on social media this week were not filmed in Hong Kong, but at Australia’s University of Queensland and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Fears are growing that the altercations are a troubling portent of what is to come as the passions of Hong Kong citizens protesting against Chinese rule spread to universities around the world.
Experts point out, however, that the Hong Kong issue is simply another flashpoint illustrating a growing display of assertive nationalism by Chinese students on foreign campuses.
Drew Pavlou, 20, one of the organisers of the Queensland protest, who was seen shouting that Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, had “got to go” before his megaphone was snatched, said he had re
‘There is a strategy to influence the way the UK generally thinks about [China] and, of course, our universities and think tanks are important opinionmoulders’
death threats. The grandson of immigrants from Brisbane, told The Sunday Telegraph that he was now too nervous to go home. “I don’t really know where I’m going to be living next week,” he said.
The Chinese consulates in Auckland and Brisbane praised their students for “spontaneous patriotism”, drawing an rebuke from Marise Payne, the Australian foreign minister, that diplomats should not interfere with free speech.
The University of Auckland has set up a “formal investigation”. Queensland stressed it would have “zero tolerance for violence and intimidation”.
The clashes are a reminder of the dilemma facing universities of how to deal with a body of Chinese students who bring not only a cash boost but also muscular nationalist demands that infringe on academic freedoms. For Australia, that has benefited from China’s economic growth and donations to its universities, more confrontations loom.
However, British and other foreign institutions must also grapple with China’s attempts to impose its views.
In some universities, links with the Confucius Institute, a state-backed organisation that promotes Chinese culture, have raised concerns about undue influence from Beijing.
Earlier this year, the London School of Economics faced protests to change a sculpture that showed Taiwan as separate from China. In 2017, Durham University was pressured to ban Anastasia Lin, a critic of the Chinese Communist party, from a campus debate.
Charles Parton of the Royal United Services Institute, said “There is a strategy to influence the way the UK generally thinks about [China] and, of course, our universities and think tanks are important opinion-moulders so they are more important in some ways. This is where our future officials are brought up so if you can change the narrative about China generally, that’s got to be to your advantage.”