You must punish HK protesters, Xi instructs police
Australia has acted to counter Chinese infiltration of its universities by introducing measures to expose all donations and foreign-financed research.
There have been warnings that China is using academic establishments to advance its strategic goals, stealing intellectual property or using universities’ expertise to develop security and defence technologies.
Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister, said that China was targeting Australian universities by orchestrating hacking attacks.
At least one university has worked with China to develop highly sophisticated facial recognition technology being used by Beijing against ethnic Uighurs, which contravenes Australia’s human rights obligations. Under a new government code, universities will have to share any intelligence they have with the security agencies.
About a third of the 400,000 foreign students at Australian universities are Chinese and they are worth an estimated A$35 billion (NZ$37b) a year to the sector.
A massive cyberattack on the Australian National University last year is suspected to have been orchestrated by Beijing, and a Chinese-Australian professor has been accused of co-authoring a paper helpful to China’s nuclear weapons programme. There have also been other sophisticated hackings of higher education centres.
Outlining the countermeasures, Dan Tehan, the education minister, said that ‘‘foreign actors’’ were sometimes using commercial research contracts to exert their influence on universities.
‘‘The foreign interference threat is at unprecedented levels,’’ he said. The guidelines would ‘‘ensure universities understand the risks and know what steps to take to protect themselves’’.
All higher education establishments will have to review whether foreign military organisations might benefit from any of their intellectual property or research. The measures were recommended by a task force set up in August comprising intelligence officials and university chiefs.
The Australian intelligence services are also believed to be investigating whether China was responsible for a cyberattack on parliament and the three largest political parties before the general election in May. – The Times
President Xi Jinping has vowed to crack down on rising violence in Hong Kong and blamed protesters’ ‘‘violent acts’’ for destroying the stability and prosperity of the former British colony.
The Chinese leader said yesterday that radical criminals were undermining the one country, two systems principle agreed when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Under that agreement, while Hong Kong was returned as Chinese territory, it retains its own economic and administrative systems, albeit without free elections.
Speaking at a summit in Brazil, Xi said: ‘‘We will firmly support the Hong Kong police to strictly enforce the law and we will firmly support the Hong Kong judiciaries to punish violent criminals in accordance of the law.’’
His remarks came after four days of sharply escalating violence in Hong Kong. Protesters have brought much of the territory to a standstill by destroying parts of rail subway stations, setting fire to a commuter train carriage and setting up barricades across the city.
One protester was shot by police in the torso, a pro-Beijing supporter was set on fire by demonstrators, a
70-year-old cleaner was struck by a brick thrown by a protester, and a
15-year-old boy had to have four hours of surgery after being hit by a rubber bullet. Demonstrators have been shooting arrows at police and hurled Molotov cocktails and bricks. Police have responded with live ammunition.
One senior police officer said that Hong Kong had been pushed to the ‘‘brink of total breakdown’’. All universities and schools have been shut until Monday.
This week has been the most violent since protests began in June.
Carrie Lam, chief executive of Hong Kong, hosted an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday to discuss the feasibility of a curfew and other measures that could be used to counter the violence.
China later denied that Lam was ready to impose a curfew, which had been reported earlier in the state-owned Global Times.
Now in its sixth month, the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement has gone from large, peaceful rallies to running street fights and a pitched battle on a university campus. Clashes between protesters and riot officers, once limited to weekends and night time, have become an around-the-clock reality this week and they are becoming more unpredictable.
With no immediate political solution in sight, China has granted Hong Kong’s 30,000 police officers exemption from punishment as protesters intensify the violence and disrupt the city’s ability to function as one of the world’s major financial centres.
Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: ‘‘We don’t see the ending. The Hong Kong police have been given more authority by Beijing ... to use violent means to suppress the protests.
‘‘There is a deep-seated contradiction between police and protesters, and this contradiction will be exacerbated, and then Beijing will further restrict the space of one country, two [systems], which will lead to the cycle of protest violence. Nobody sees an end game.’’
Tse Chun-chung, chief superintendent of Hong Kong police public relations, said: ‘‘Many people point their fingers at the police and play the blame game, accusing us of provoking violence in universities and causing social unrest.
‘‘We have stressed repeatedly that police officers are in a reactive mode. If rioters did not commit dangerous and destructive acts, there is no reason for the police to respond with force.
‘‘If anyone still has any wishful thinking that they can achieve their so-called political ideals by using violence, it’s time to wake up.’’
Demonstrators have demanded an independent inquiry into police brutality, along with the resignation of Lam, the release of protesters from jail and free elections.
There is little sign that public sympathy for the protesters is waning in the territory. Residents queued for kilometres in their cars on roads leading to the Chinese University of Hong Kong yesterday to provide bottles of water, blankets, food and masks for protesters who clashed with police there this week. – The Times
More residents have been told to leave their homes as Queensland braced for another day of dangerous fire conditions.
There were more than 60 blazes still burning across the state, with firefighters prepared for high temperatures and hot, dry westerly winds yesterday and into the weekend. Leave now warnings were in place for residents of Woodgate and nearby Kinkuna Waters, south of Bundaberg. A third leave now warning has been issued for Thornside, west of Gympie.
The Cobraball fire near Yeppoon in central Queensland continues to worry authorities given the difficult weather conditions expected in coming days.
The blaze, which destroyed 15 of the 16 homes lost in Queensland over the past week, is 90 per cent contained but that could change when high winds arrive.
Damage assessments are continuing with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services saying the number of homes lost could rise.
But QFES assistant commissioner Tony Johnstone says crews have done a remarkable job protecting property. – AAP