Australian university faced backlash after deleting social media posts critical of China over Hong Kong

The University of New South Wales is facing backlash after the university deleted social media posts promoting an opinion piece that calls on the international community to increase pressure on China over its human rights infringement in Hong Kong.

The article was first published on the university’s website on July 31, and it quoted Elaine Pearson, the Australian Director for Human Rights Watch and an adjunct lecturer at University of New South Wales’ Law School. In the article, Pearson said the United Nations needed to establish a special envoy to monitor the declining human rights situation in Hong Kong.

After the school published the article on its website, they used the official Twitter account to promote the article and in the tweet, the school quoted Pearson saying “@UNSWLaw’s Elaine Pearson says ‘now is the time’ for the international community to put pressure on China to wind back infringements on human rights.”

However, a few hours after the school sent out that tweet, Chinese students at the university began to mobilize and plan countermeasures. They published at least two pieces on China’s popular social media platform WeChat, calling on Chinese students to boycott the university’s official Twitter account, while demanding the university to give Chinese students “a reasonable explanation.”

One of the comments under the original Tweet even wrote: “You are playing fire….shame on you.” An alumni of the UNSW Law School from China also started a private group on WeChat, and he shared detailed instructions that pointed students to different ways that they could complain about the opinion piece to university officials.

“The goal of this protest is to force the school to delete the tweet and remove the article from the university’s website,” the alumni surnamed Huang wrote in a post. “We also want the school to publicly apologize for sharing the piece. I will try to contact other UNSW Law alumni who still work in Sydney and see if we can put pressure on the school from civil society.”

In a screenshot of the WeChat group, a student announced that he had sent screenshots of the article to the Chinese consulate in Sydney while the other student suggested that the group should contact the “organization” first.

“I’m a JD student at UNSW Law, and I have noticed that an article ‘China needs international pressure to end Hong Kong wrongs’ on todays’ UNSW Newsroom,” a Chinese student wrote in an e-mail to the school officials. “This is totally unacceptable!!! As a Chinese law student, I request a formal investigation to this issue.”

UNSW deleted the tweet and temporarily removed the article

Following waves of complaints from Chinese students, the University of New South Wales deleted the tweet promoting the opinion piece on Saturday, and wrote on WeChat that opinions expressed by academics working for the university don’t always represent the views of UNSW.

“We have a long and valued relationship with Greater China going back 60 years,” the university wrote. “UNSW provides a welcome and inclusive environment and is proud to welcome students from over 100 countries.”

Later on Saturday, China’s state-run tabloid Global Times also wrote about the incident, describing how Chinese students were outraged by the university’s behavior. The article quoted a student surnamed Lin, who threatened that if the school maintains its “tough stance,” he would quit school instead.

Elaine Pearson responded to the episode on Monday morning through a thread on Twitter, emphasizing that the university’s media team approached her for the story and asked for her views on the human rights impacts on Hong Kong’s national security law.

“I gave my views, [and] the story was published by UNSW,” she wrote. “I did not write it. A tweet from UNSW quoting me and promoting the Hong Kong story was suddenly deleted, and twice the story was removed briefly from the UNSW website, but then later reappeared.”

“I am seeking clarification from UNSW on what occurred. I hope UNSW will reaffirm its protection of academic freedom and make it clear that academic freedom does not mean caving to censorship demands by some people over views they disagree with. Safeguarding the human rights of Hong Kong people is not something that should be controversial.”

In an e-mail response, the university said they decided to remove the posts on their social media channels because “they were not in line with our policies — and the views of an academic were being misconstrued as representing the University,” the university wrote.

“The opinions expressed by UNSW academics do not always represent the views of the University. UNSW protects academic freedom and freedom of speech, respecting the right of academics and others to express their views within the law.”

The incident also raised some questions among Australian politicians. Tony Sheldon, a senator from the Labor Party, questioned how the university could still call itself a university after what happened over the weekend. “When respected voices like Elaine Pearson and the Human Rights Watch are being censored, we have a big problem,” Sheldon wrote.

According to official statistics provided by the school, there are more than 16,000 Chinese students at the university, which is around 68.8% of the entire international student body. Additionally, the school has very strong business and research ties with China.

This piece was first published in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.