Chinese Students Bring Threat of Violence to Australian Universities

A clash with Hong Kong supporters at an anti-China protest is a dark omen of what’s to come.

By Damien Cave

A group of violent Chinese students at the University of Queensland last week, before a scuffle with protesters who supported Hong Kong activists.

BRISBANE, Australia — The Chinese nationalists disrupting pro-Hong Kong democracy rallies at the University of Queensland arrived 300 strong, with a speaker to blast China’s national anthem. They deferred to a leader in a pink shirt.
And their tactics included violence.
One video from the scene shows a student from Hong Kong being grabbed by the throat.
Another shows a philosophy student, Drew Pavlou, 20, shouting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Xi Jinping has got to go,” until a counterprotester throws his megaphone aside.
The altercations, which took place last Wednesday in the main square of a major Australian university, were broken up by the police, but experts believe it could be a dark omen of what is to come as the passions of Hong Kong protesters ripple to other countries.
A similar scuffle broke out on Tuesday at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, when three Chinese men were filmed shouting down students from Hong Kong at a rally and pushing a young woman to the ground.
For Australia in particular, the past week signals trouble after years of gliding along and growing rich off China’s growth.
Australian universities have come to depend on Chinese donors, students and organizations that are loyal to Beijing and intolerant of dissent.
More collisions with China’s muscular nationalism now seem likely.
Racist chants and insults have been traded, along with punches.
The Chinese Consulate in Brisbane praised the “spontaneous patriotic behavior” of the pro-China activists — leading the Australian defense minister to take the extraordinary step of warning foreign diplomats against attempts to suppress free speech.
Deconstructing what led to the clashes on Wednesday, through interviews, online messages and videos, reveals just how volatile, racially charged and violent any reckoning with China may become.
“It would certainly be nice if it didn’t escalate, but I remain quite concerned that the entire way this has been handled makes copycat attacks inevitable,” said Kevin Carrico, a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at Monash University in Melbourne.
“It’s quite worrying.”

New activists and new causes
The protest began with two students: Jack Yiu, 21, a quiet psychology major from Hong Kong, and Mr. Pavlou, a chatty grandson of Greek immigrants from Brisbane.
Both new to activism, they didn’t know each other until a few weeks ago.
Until recently, Mr. Yiu had led the university’s Hong Kong Student Association, holding benign activities like welcome dinners.
Mr. Pavlou was known on campus for starting a popular Facebook group for intellectual debate.
But recent events involving China, they said, forced them to act.
Mr. Yiu said he had friends in Hong Kong marching for democracy and against a bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.
Mr. Pavlou said his own outrage was prompted by reading about Xinjiang, a region of China where the government has pushed minority Muslims into re-education camps.
“It’s cultural genocide,” Mr. Pavlou said.
Adding to his anger, he discovered his own university had cultivated close ties with Chinese officials.
While the University of Queensland is one of several universities with a Confucius Institute — officially a program to promote Chinese language and culture — the vice chancellor, Peter Hoj, has made more of that relationship than his peers have.
The institute at the university plays a broader role, emphasizing collaboration with China in science, engineering and technology.
Until late last year, Mr. Hoj was an unpaid consultant for the Confucius Institute headquarters.
This month, he granted a visiting professorship to the Chinese consul general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, bringing a Communist Party official into university life at a time when the United States, Canada and several European countries have cut ties.
“It’s part of this China illiteracy, which is quite prevalent in Australia,” said Louisa Lim, a professor at the University of Melbourne and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited.”
“In many cases,” she said, “the allure of Chinese investment and large numbers of Chinese students has been so overwhelming that educational institutions have just thrown their arms wide open without doing their due diligence.”

The University of Queensland's vice chancellor, Peter Hoj, right, with Xu Jie, the Chinese consul general in Brisbane, Australia, in a photo released by the Chinese Consulate this month.

In a statement online, the University of Queensland said that the consul general would not be teaching and was one of 260 titleholders appointed in recent years.
But for Mr. Pavlou, who is majoring primarily in philosophy, his university’s warm welcome has legitimized a culture of disinformation and censorship. 
He said his anger crystallized after a student Facebook group, called StalkerSpace, filled up with pro-China statements around the 30th anniversary of the TiananmenSquare massacre in June.
“I saw all these people denying things that happened or stating the official government line on it, and like to me, that was really disgusting and horrifying,” Mr. Pavlou said.
A recent poll of Australians’ views on foreign affairs, by the Lowy Institute, found that many Australians were experiencing a similar shift: Only 32 percent of respondents said they trust China either “a great deal” or “somewhat” to act responsibly, a 20-point fall from 2018.
Mr. Pavlou said the recent protests in Hong Kong were an inspiration.
He found Mr. Yiu through other activists, and they agreed to back-to-back rallies on July 24: The Hong Kong students would start at 10 a.m.; Mr. Pavlou and his group, broadening the focus to the university’s China ties, would start at noon.
Mr. Pavlou posted a notice of the event on Facebook.
That’s when the trouble started.

Counterprotesters emerge
“Yo bro where u from? Australia?” said the Facebook message from an account with the name Frank Wang.
“If so u better want to stay away from political problem.”
“Cancel the event,” the message continued.
“If u keep doing this, uv gonna face millions of people on your opposite side.”
Other messages were more aggressive.
Mixing Chinese and English, some people called Mr. Pavlou a white pig, using a pig emoji.
One comment in Chinese said: “When will you die.”

A threatening message that Drew Pavlou received on Facebook.

Mr. Pavlou was drawn into trading insults with some of them.
“It was out of fear and anger,” he said.
“It was silly. I regret it.”
Nonetheless, he carried on.
The first protest was uneventful.
A wall filled up with sticky notes of support, mirroring those in Hong Kong.
But by the time Mr. Pavlou and a few others started their protest, a crowd had gathered.
Several people there estimated that about 300 people — appearing to be a mix of Chinese students and nonstudents — appeared suddenly.
Within minutes, someone had grabbed Mr. Pavlou’s megaphone, prompting him to jump up and push back.
Security guards intervened, but the leader of the counterprotesters demanded an apology on China’s behalf.
“We tried to talk to them,” Mr. Yiu said.
“On the megaphone, I told them, we’re just fighting for Hong Kong democracy, not independence.”
By 2:15 p.m., it had grown tense.
Mr. Pavlou, who had continued the protest inside the Confucius Institute’s offices, re-emerged to see 50 or so Hong Kong students surrounded.
Priya De, 22, a leader with the socialist group that connected Mr. Yiu and Mr. Pavlou, said she heard white Australians shouting “Go back to China” at the Chinese students, and “Deport them, deport them.”
A video shot by a Hong Kong student showed David Chui, 23, a business student from Hong Kong, being grabbed by the throat and thrown to the ground.
Christy Leung, 21, another Hong Kong student, said a sign was torn from her hands and her clothing ripped.
She and Mr. Chui went to the police to press charges.
They were told there was nothing they could do.
“I don’t know how to be hopeful,” Ms. Leung said.
“People told me to report it and I did, but it didn’t work.”

The aftermath
Mr. Pavlou’s group is planning another protest this week.
The university said that it opened an investigation into the clash, and it issued a statement defending free speech but proposing that the demonstration be held in a more remote area of campus.
“It’s simply a way to starve the protest of visibility,” Mr. Pavlou said.
Some students would rather see it canceled.
A half-dozen students from mainland China interviewed around campus on Tuesday called any demonstration against Chinese influence unnecessary and useless.
Some activists on the left, noting that the Hong Kong Student Association is not involved, said they worried that any protest led by Australians who were not from Hong Kong or mainland China would only contribute to anti-Chinese racism.
But for Mr. Pavlou, Mr. Yiu, and many others, there is no turning back.
A group of Tibetan students has aligned with Mr. Pavlou’s group, calling for the university to shut down its Confucius Institute.
Mr. Yiu and his fellow Hong Kong students are planning more rallies, coordinating with groups all over Australia.
“People in Hong Kong are risking their lives,” Ms. Leung said.
“The threats we faced last week are nothing compared to them. We have to stand up. With them.”

Chinese Government intrusion into Western universities sparks push for collective action

• Five Eyes partners considering collective response to Chinese interference
• Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warns Australian universities needed to be resilient
• Australia is taking a leading role in the discussions

By Andrew Greene

The fear of Chinese Government intrusion into Western universities is sparking a push by Australia's closest allies for a more coordinated response to Beijing's aggressive tactics.
Having observed attacks on academic freedoms in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — discussions have begun in diplomatic and security circles about whether the Five Eyes intelligence partners should respond collectively to the threat, so there are no "weak links" which can be exploited.
So far nothing formal has been proposed but senior national security figures have told the ABC Australia is taking a "leading role" in publicly highlighting the situation.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Frances Adamson warned Australian universities needed to be resilient to Chinese interference.

The concerns over China's activities were brought starkly into focus last week in a rare public speech by the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson, who warned Australian universities needed to be resilient to Chinese interference.
"The silencing of anyone in our society from students to lecturers to politicians is an affront to our values," Ms Adamson told the Confucius Institute at Adelaide University.
Her contribution has been noted by senior government figures and the diplomatic community as a deliberate and important acknowledgement of the gravity of the situation.
Ms Adamson's intervention is the latest in a series of tougher statements from Australian officials condemning Beijing's activities, which began with the Prime Minister's comments on the South China Sea during the Shangri-La dialogue in June.
"Australia is giving China what it wants in terms of education for its students — so it's time for the Federal Government to insist the Chinese comply with Australia's values and interests," a senior foreign diplomatic figure told the ABC.
The Canberra based diplomat concedes any move by Australia to clamp down on Chinese interference would need to be matched by other Five Eyes intelligence partners who compete heavily to attract the same international students to their universities.
One of the most senior national security figures in Australia says there is now a "like mindedness and shared understanding" among Five Eyes allies of how China's pervasive and subversive influence has penetrated into each nation.
Earlier this year a Four Corners investigation revealed the extent of influence by the Chinese Communist Party on international students studying in Australia.
Last year security concerns were raised over plans to install Chinese-owned technology on a powerful supercomputer used by government agencies and Australian universities.

International experience
United States
According to the New York Times over 300,000 Chinese nationals now study at US colleges, more than five times the number recorded a decade ago.
Chinese Students and Scholars Associations have drawn criticism for their on-campus activities in trying to silence groups whose views do not align with Beijing's.

United Kingdom
In August Cambridge University Press announced it would reinstate online journal articles critical of Beijing which it had blocked in China at the request of the Communist government.
The incident has highlighted the pressure exerted on British academic institutions by the Chinese Government.

New Zealand
The smallest of the Five Eyes intelligence partners is seen by analysts as a "soft" target for Beijing's growing "soft power" diplomacy.
Diplomatic figures believe China's interference on New Zealand campuses is similar to the tactics employed in Australia.

Chinazism

Our universities are a frontline in China's ideological wars
By John Garnaut

Students in Sydney: China's ideological reach goes far beyond its shores. 

Xi Jinping is returning politics to the commanding heights of Chinese education.
He's told teachers to "educate and guide their students to love the motherland, love the people, and love the Communist Party of China".
He's rallied lecturers to "guard the party's ideology" and "dare to unsheath the sword".
And, most challenging for us, Xi has made clear that his primary enemies are the liberal values that undermine his political system but underpin our own.
"There is no way that universities can allow teaching materials preaching Western values into our classrooms," Xi's Education Minister explained.
The liberal values of freedom, equality and individual dignity are under greater strain in China than they have been for decades.
The room for rational debate and open, evidence-based critical inquiry is shrinking.
And the political rewards for blind patriotism – a racialised patriotism that conflates "the motherland" with "the party" – are high and rising.
The challenge for the democratic world is that Xi's deepening struggle against liberal values does not end at China's borders.
To the contrary, Xi has been rebuilding and reinvigorating the old revolutionary machinery – core institutions like the United Front Work Department and its myriad platforms – to export his ideological battle to the world.
"Overseas Chinese have red-hot patriotic sentiment," as Xi told delegates to the Seventh World Get-Together Meeting of Overseas Chinese Social Groups, early in his tenure.
The Communist Party's war against liberal values and its growing international reach presents Australia with challenges we've not seen before.
Last year the Ministry of Education issued new instructions to its counsellors at diplomatic missions around the world: "Build a multidimensional contact network linking home and abroad – the motherland, embassies and consulates, overseas student groups, and the broad number of students abroad – so that they fully feel that the motherland cares."
And nowhere are the challenges greater than at our universities.
In recent months we've seen denunciations of Australian university lecturers who have offended Beijing's patriotic sensibilities.
A lecturer at the the Australian National University was excoriated on Chinese language social media channels for "insensitively" displaying this warning – "I will not tolerate students who cheat" – in both English and Chinese.
He was forced to issue a long apology for any implication that the offenders spoke Chinese.
A lecturer at the University of Sydney was castigated for using an online map of the world which, if you looked extremely closely, showed an Indian demarcation of the Himalayan border.
The lecturer apologised after being found guilty by a Wechat group called "Australian Red Scarf" – which focused on the lecturer's Indian-looking name.
And then there was the convoy of Bentleys and Lamborghinis that wound its way past Sydney University and UTS before revving engines outside the Indian consulate on August 15, India's Independence Day.
"Anyone who offends China will be killed," said one of the car door slogans, quoting from China's biggest grossing film, Wolf Warrior 2.
Racial chauvinism is only one of the challenges that Beijing is exporting to universities.
Look at recent controversies involving Cambridge University Press and its experiment with mass censorship. 

Or the enormous private donations to Harvard. 

Or the attacks on a Chinese student for praising the "fresh air" at the University of Maryland.
Singapore has just expelled a pro-China professor of international relations – a Chinese-born US citizen – because he "knowingly interacted with intelligence organisations" and "co-operated with them to influence the Singapore government's foreign policy and public opinion in Singapore".
This case has implications for the integrity of academic systems everywhere. 

The professor's work, for example, features on the cover of the current edition of an influential Australian university magazine.
There can be no doubting the pressure on universities to fill classrooms with full fee-paying foreign students, generate private donations, and rise up the research rankings.
But they will need to find a way to reconcile their scholarly values and principles with the political objectives of their dominant customer.
How should university leaders respond to the party's latest instructions to "set up party cells in Sino-foreign joint education projects" – as set out in an edict from the Ministry of Education cited by the Beijing-based advisory China Policy. 

The edict goes onto ensure that cadres are properly compensated for the time-consuming work of "monitoring the ideological orientation of young faculty [members] and overseas returnees".
The reputational and commercial risks for our universities are potentially enormous.
And there will be new legal risks to navigate when the Prime Minister and Attorney-General deliver sweeping counterintelligence reforms later this year.
Mr Turnbull has made clear that he does not look kindly upon countries seeking advantage "through corruption, interference or coercion".
To manage these risks our universities will need to reach out to alienated students, fix the failures of integration and improve their products.
They'll need full spectrum resilience strategies to shore up vulnerabilities and uphold the principles of open and critical inquiry which they are built upon.
Most of all they will have to look at what the Chinese Communist Party is doing on their campuses and do a better job of hearing what it says.

Chinese political donations pose a threat to Australian democracy

Concerns are being raised over political parties accepting substantial payments from sources linked to the Communist Party of China
By DANIEL FAZIO 

On June 5, the ABC television show Four Corners shed light on substantial donations to the Liberal-National coalition (LNP) and Labor (ALP) parties from Chinese sources linked to the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

These revelations raise serious concerns that require immediate action to prevent the further corrosion of Australian politics and the undermining of the country’s national sovereignty.
Current Australian electoral laws allow political parties to seek and accept foreign donations, so there is no suggestion that the parties have done anything illegal.
However, being beholden to foreign donors risks corrupting and compromising Australian national sovereignty. 

Indeed, Four Corners revealed this is why ASIO, the country’s chief intelligence agency, warned senior Liberal-National and Labor officials that China is exercising undue influence in Australian politics.
ASIO is also concerned about CPC influence in Australian universities, its monitoring of Chinese students and Chinese media in Australia to ensure they don’t engage in activities contrary to Beijing’s views.
One thing is certain: the Chinese are not donating hefty sums of money to the LNP and ALP because they have an altruistic desire to aid Australian democracy. 

Beijing is seeking to exploit Australia’s economic reliance on China because it serves its geo-strategic interests.
China’s increasing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and growing presence in Africa indicates a calculated strategic move beyond Deng Xiaoping’s axiom: “hide your strength, bide your time.”
By deploying its soft power to increase its hard power, China is no longer hiding its strength or biding its time.
Should Australian political parties continue accepting Chinese donations, they risk facilitating growing Chinese influence in Australian politics which will undermine national sovereignty and compromise future Australian governments into acting contrary to Australian interests.
Chinese influence in Australian politics is already evident. 

In 2016, it emerged Labor Senator Sam Dastyari had received gifts and payments for legal and travel bills from Chinese contacts.
During last year’s federal election, a Chinese donor threatened to withdraw a promised A$400,000 (US$303,700) donation to the ALP after its shadow defence minister, Stephen Conroy, expressed support for freedom of navigation laws in the South China Sea, which were contrary to Beijing’s claims in the area.
It has also transpired that Australia’s former trade minister, Andrew Robb, accepted an A$880,000 a year consultancy with a Chinese firm before he left parliament after having negotiated the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Australia needs to immediately ban foreign donations for all political parties and mandate full disclosure of all donations from all organisations and individuals.
Current Australian electoral law means donations below A$13,000 don’t have to be disclosed. 

Total transparency is the only way to minimize corruption and subversiveness of the political process.
The issue of the Chinese donations are symptomatic of the closed operational culture of the LNP and ALP. 

This lack of transparency plays into Chinese hands. 

Secrecy serves the designs of the political parties and those who seek to influence them.
Australian political parties are very opaque. 

They operate in a democracy but their internal culture and workings are not open or democratic. 

Within the party structures, power and decision-making is concentrated in the hands of a very small number of individuals.
Dissenting views are not tolerated and it is almost impossible for those aspiring for internal party positions and a parliamentary career to make headway without currying favor with the power brokers. A political operative once told me “election day” is the only day democracy operates in Australian politics.
The current state of Australian politics offers little hope for genuine and transparent reform. 

Voters are becoming increasingly apathetic, cynical and disillusioned. 

The political parties are content to perpetuate this vicious cycle because a disengaged electorate allows them to avoid proper scrutiny.
Party officials, determined to keep power concentrated in their hands, vehemently resist calls to democratize. 

This singular focus on the pursuit and maintenance of power leaves parties open to be compromised by vested interests. 

This will further corrode the political process and weaken national sovereignty.
Political parties in comparable nations such as Britain, Canada and the US are much more democratic than those in Australia. 

The revelations about the Chinese donations are a warning to the Australian electorate to emerge from our apathetic stupor and deploy our collective power at the ballot box and demand openness and accountability from our elected representatives and their parties.
Lord Acton said, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

Transparency and accountability are the only real safeguards against undue Chinese influence upon the political process and national sovereignty.

Australia's Chinese Fifth Column

Australian universities the latest battleground in Chinese soft power offensive
By Hagar Cohen

Beijing collaborator Bob Carr of the Australia China Relations Institute.

In an exclusive interview, Australia's first ambassador to China has raised the alarm about China's influence in the higher education sector.
Stephen Fitzgerald singled out Bob Carr's Australia China Relations Institute for particular criticism, saying universities need clear firewalls between donations and research.
ACRI, part of the University of Technology Sydney, was established with a large donation from the Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo.
Mr Huang was the donor at the centre of the controversy surrounding Labor senator Sam Dastyari.
"I wouldn't have taken the funding," Mr Fitzgerald told Background Briefing.
"This is one of the really difficult issues about what is happening at the moment, because you don't want to say no to all Chinese money.
"That would be ridiculous, self defeating, but you have to put firewalls between the donation and the way it is spent, and you have to be certain about the origins of that money."

'No place' for Confucius institutes
As well as ACRI, hundreds of other language and culture centres have been established on campuses worldwide through confidential agreements between universities and the Chinese education ministry.
Mr Fitzgerald said he believed these centres, known as Confucius institutes, had no place in Australian higher education institutions.
"I just don't think they should be in universities," he said.
"Have them in Australia by all means; have them all over the country. I'd welcome them, but I don't think they should be in universities."
"There will be people who have been involved with these institutes who will say there has never been one instance of any attempt to influence what we teach and what we say.
"There will be others who might admit that there has been such an attempt."

Controversy over Sydney Uni plan
Background Briefing has revealed that at the University of Sydney, a confidential 2007 plan included a clause that would have seen the university's existing Chinese language program incorporated into a Confucius institute.
This draft agreement ended up in the hands of Professor Jocelyn Chey, the former Australian consul-general in Hong Kong and a visiting professor at the university's Department of Chinese Studies.
"I wasn't sure that the university authorities knew what they were letting themselves in for," she said.
"There's the question of academic freedom and the right of academics not just to teach but to research and publish in areas where they are not under the guidance or direction of anybody."
Professor Chey wrote a strongly worded letter to the vice chancellor outlining her concerns and saying the Confucius institute should be rejected, or the arrangement should be significantly modified to protect the integrity of the university.
"People who accept donations should be aware of the expectations and obligations that they're taking on with the finance," she said.
The university senate voted in favour of the Confucius Institute, but adopted some of the changes to the arrangement that were recommended by Professor Chey.
A University of Sydney spokesperson confirmed a proposal to establish a Confucius Institute at the University of Sydney was circulated to the senate in 2007.
Feedback from staff was considered, and it was confirmed that the university did not intend for existing university programs to be delivered by the Confucius Institute.
The spokesperson said these programs continue to be delivered by the Department of Chinese Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures.

Australia's Chinese Fifth Column

The 'patriotic education' of Chinese students at Australian universities
Alexander Joske and Philip Wen

The day before a gala celebration marking China's National Day was held in Canberra last week, organisers found dozens of posters they had put up at the Australian National University to promote the event defaced with fluorescent green paint.
In large Chinese characters, vandals had smeared the words "Tiananmen Students" along with the numbers "six" and "four", a reference to the Communist Party's darkest of stains: peaceful, student-led pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square suppressed in a hail of gunfire and bloodshed on June 4, 1989.
As a crowd of bemused onlookers gathered, the event's incensed organisers, from the university's Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), hastily tore down the defaced posters.
A Chinese student at ANU, Erica Zhao, said, "It's quite cowardly to vandalise the posters behind people's backs," adding, "Australia is a place for free speech. If they felt bad about the posters they could have just spoken out rather than play tricks.
"It [the Tiananmen Square massacre] was not ANU Chinese students' fault."
The act of vandalism may appear innocuous in isolation, but campus spats of a political nature among Chinese students in Australia are exactly the type of incidents Beijing increasingly seeks to monitor.
As larger numbers of Chinese students study abroad, and are exposed to unrestricted and frequently critical media coverage of the Chinese government, greater efforts are being made to ensure they do not return with new-found opposition to the Communist Party.
A directive handed down in January by the Ministry of Education emphasised the importance of "patriotic education" in ensuring all university students – even those studying overseas – "always follow the party".

The defaced China National Day posters at Australian National University.

"Assemble the broad numbers of students abroad as a positive patriotic energy," the document says. "Build a multidimensional contact network linking home and abroad — the motherland, embassies and consulates, overseas student groups, and the broad number of students abroad — so that they fully feel that the motherland cares."
Official CSSA chapters which maintain close links with Chinese embassies and consulates proliferate on university campuses worldwide, and are increasingly vocal in countries with large Chinese student populations such as Australia.Cheng Jingye, China's new ambassador to Australia,with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in August. 

The Chinese embassy and consulates in Australia routinely help fund and provide venues for major CSSA student events. 

The CSSA at Sydney University, for example, says on its website that one of its key aims is to help the "Education Office of the Chinese embassy to organise all forms of activities relating to Chinese students".
One former CSSA executive at an Australian university told Fairfax Media that executives from universities all around the country are flown, at the embassy's cost, for regular conferences with Chinese officials on collaborating with the embassy and on the latest party doctrines.
The association's executives are prolific in their output of pro-government statements, with former president Zhu Runbang recently penning an article for state-owned media company China Radio International entitled, "Overseas Chinese and Chinese Students in Australia Support the Chinese Government's Legal Rights in the South China Sea."
Last year, the president of the ANU CSSA intimidated and yelled at staff in ANU's pharmacy for stocking the Epoch Times, a dissident newspaper with ties to the Falun Gong, until they let him throw the papers out.
Mention of the Tiananmen massacre is strictly censored online and in school textbooks in mainland China, and for many young Chinese students they only learn of the full extent of the events of 1989 when they move overseas for study.
The defaced posters incident at ANU appeared to result in a heightened security presence at the "I Love China 2.0" Chinese National Day gala, held at the Canberra Theatre on Thursday night with Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye the keynote speaker.
A group of men in black suits, communicating via walkie talkies, appeared to be operating independently to uniformed security guards at the venue.
Focusing their attention on attendees they considered unwelcome, they repeatedly followed and harassed a student journalist for ANU's campus newspaper Woroni, even tailing him when he went to the toilet.
Both the CSSA and Canberra Theatre declined to comment on the security situation at the event.
The night's programme featured schoolchildren waving Chinese flags as they chorused "this is your birthday, my Motherland". 

Another patriotic song belted out the line "the black-eyed, black-haired, and yellow-skinned are forever the descendants of the dragon".
And in a video package aired that evening, an interview with a young ANU student was shown as a shining example for all those watching. 

Having immigrated at age five and holding Australian citizenship, she was asked whether she considered herself more Chinese or Australian.
"More Chinese," came her quick reply.