Australian universities sell-out to Chinese international students

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Over the past several months we have witnessed several pertinent examples of Australia’s universities selling their souls for Chinese international students.

Back in July, the University of Queensland (UQ) was embroiled in a major scandal when Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters were violently attacked by a group of Chinese nationalist students.

Instead of denouncing the actions and imposing appropriate sanctions against the offending Chinese students, the top brass at UQ instead issued soft platitudes encouraging harmony.

The reason for the weak response was obvious. Like many of Australia’s universities, UQ has become finally dependent on the fees from Chinese international students. Thus, issuing proper sanctions against the offending Chinese students risked alienating this group, in turn putting UQ’s lucrative fee revenue at risk.

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UQ’s ties to China’s Communist Party has also been thrust into the spotlight. UQ houses one of 13 China-backed Confucius Institutes operating on Australian university campuses. These Confucius Institutes are fully funded subsidiaries of China’s Ministry of Education. They provide participating Australian universities with partial funding, native language instructors, teaching resources, student exchange opportunities, and Chinese language and culture consultative services from the Chinese Government.

Their formal mission is to promote Chinese language and culture, and therefore give an uncritical view of Chinese society, as well as provide direct influence inside our universities.

In July, it was revealed that UQ had signed agreements explicitly dictating that it “must accept the assessment of the [Confucius Institute] Headquarters on the teaching quality”.

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It was also revealed that the Brisbane Chinese consul-general, Xu Jie, who had praised the “acts of patriotism” by the violent Chinese student counter-protesters, was made an adjunct professor of language and culture at UQ:

Author of Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, Professor Clive Hamilton, denounced this appointment:

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“Appointing a serving foreign diplomat to a university post is unheard of … It shows how the University of Queensland has become so starry-eyed about China that it has lost its judgment.”

With this sordid background in mind, ABC News yesterday published a detailed expose providing more details of how UQ has been captured by the Chinese Communist Party:

The Chinese Government has co-funded at least four courses at the University of Queensland (UQ), including one on China’s role in “strengthening” responses to “global security challenges”, such as human rights, “mass atrocities prevention” and “counter-terrorism”…

The revelations come as UQ faces calls to review its lucrative deals with the Chinese Government, after a Four Corners — Background Briefing investigation last night revealed its Confucius Institute had veered into curriculum development and honorary staff appointments.

The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Peter Høj, was until recently a senior consultant to Beijing’s global Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and a member of its powerful governing council, which is responsible for more than 500 institutes operating in universities and schools across the world…

Four Corners also revealed last night that the director of UQ’s Confucius Institute personally nominated China’s Consul-General in Brisbane, Xu Jie, as an adjunct professor — the fifth such appointment of a Chinese diplomat at the university.

Shortly after his appointment in July, Dr Xu Jie was criticised by Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne for praising the “spontaneous patriotic behaviour” of Chinese students, some of whom clashed violently with anti-Beijing protesters.

Dr Xu remains an adjunct professor at the university…

Senior security adviser to the Federal Government, Ross Babbage, told Four Corners a complete review was needed at UQ in response to revelations of its involvement in funding the “Understanding China” course…

“Why would we permit a foreign authoritarian government through a Confucius Institute to play a role in determining the curriculum to be taught on an Australian campus? I find that bizarre,” [Professor Clive Hamilton] said.

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To be fair, UQ is not the only Australian university to be operating under Chinese influence. There are currently 13 China-backed Confucius Institutes operating at Australian universities, including many of the prestigious Group of Eight institutions such as the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, NSW, and Queensland.

Remember, too, that Australia has the highest concentration of Chinese international students in the world:

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Whereas the majority of Chinese international students are actually enrolled in New South Wales and Victoria, not Queensland:

You don’t get this concentration of Chinese students without giving up something in return.

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By allowing Confucius Institutes to run amok, Australia’s universities have been turned into the useful idiots of the world’s most evil autocratic regime.

At a minimum, these Confucius Institutes must be moved off-campus, or better yet, shut down altogether. Other cultural institutes of this nature are not operating on our university campuses.

No amount of fees are worth the cost of selling-out Australia’s independence and democratic freedoms.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.