ON CAMPUS campusreview . com . au
Two faced ?
The challenges of negotiating international relations and academic freedom on campus .
By Bingqing Yang
It happened again . On 31 July , the
University of NSW tweeted an article which quoted Human Rights Watch ’ s Australia director and adjunct law lecturer , Elaine Pearson , expressing her concerns over the erosion of human rights in Hong Kong .
The tweet quickly provoked an online protest from Chinese Communist Party supporters . After an apparent barrage from its Chinese students , the university removed the tweet and deleted the article from its official website . Not surprisingly , it plunged the university into greater controversy . A flurry of bipartisan criticism from federal MPs and senators accused UNSW of not defending academic freedom . The article has since been restored .
Later , the university issued two statements respectively apologising to UNSW staff and Chinese students and alumni , with one from VC Ian Jacobs acknowledging the deleting of the original tweet as a mistake , and another from UNSW Global chief executive Laurie Pearcey claiming the tweet was removed by the school due to its misleading content .
It is not the first time that universities have found themselves mired in such an uncomfortable situation . Early in 2016 , the University of Sydney faced two opposing waves of petitions over controversial comments by a Business School tutor on China and Chinese students , which ended up with the tutor voluntarily resigning .
Late last year , at the height of antiextradition bill protests , Australia ’ s universities almost become an overseas battlefield between pro-democracy and pro-China demonstrators . Such predicaments are not limited to Australia .
In 2017 , an invitation to the Dalai Lama , deemed a separatist by Beijing , to speak at the University of California ’ s
Increasingly complex international relations indisputably require a firm defence of the values we cherish .
commencement ceremony sparked uproar among its Chinese students who saw the decision as an affront . Similar controversies broke out at the Johns Hopkins Foreign Affairs Symposium when the university issued invitations to Hong Kong activists Nathan Law and Joshua Wang .
Every event follows the same script . The angry responses from Chinese students and their demand for an apology are seen as attempts at censorship , thereby a threat to Australia ’ s academic freedom . Clive Hamilton , author of a controversial book titled Silent Invasion : China ’ s Influence in Australia , alleges that the Chinese consulate encourages and guides student actions behind the scenes . In the UNSW case , the link between campaign organiser , Sydneybased lawyer Huang Yuwen , and the Chinese consulate seemed to reconfirm this conjecture and cater to the current political worries about China ’ s penetration in Australian universities .
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