Drew Pavlou for Australian of the Year, at The Guardian:
Lawyers for a student activist have lodged a formal complaint demanding the University of Queensland dismiss the Chinese consul-general in Brisbane from an adjunct professor position, over comments “praising violence” against peaceful campus protesters.
The call to sack the diplomat, Xu Jie, from the honorary university position relates to a public statement he made 11 months ago affirming the “self-motivated patriotic behaviour” of a pro-Beijing group that sparked a physical clash with Hong Kong democracy protesters on campus.
The UQ chancellor, Peter Varghese, offered a belated condemnation of those comments last week in an interview with Guardian Australia, and said that any statement that endorsed violence on campus would be in breach of the university’s code of conduct.
Xu was last year made an adjunct professor in the university’s school of languages and cultures.
A student attacked during the June protest, Drew Pavlou, now faces expulsion from the university in relation to his provocative activism, which has become focused on the university’s relationship with China.
Pavlou has sought to draw comparison to the fact he faces a disciplinary investigation – mostly in relation to satirical stunts and allegedly offensive and discriminatory comments – but that Xu has not been disciplined or sacked by UQ for comments that endorsed violence on campus.
Where was UQ eleven months ago when I was receiving dozens of death threats at Xu Jie’s direction? UQ cracked down on me, a peaceful protester, instead of the Consul General. Now, under relentless public pressure, UQ condemns Xu Jie. Nothing but a face-saving PR move, a year late
After reading Varghese’s comments to the Guardian – which included saying the university would not in future offer foreign officials honorary academic positions – Pavlou’s lawyer Mark Tarrant has written to the university demanding Xu’s post be rescinded.
Tarrant told Guardian Australia the code could be applied to Xu, regardless of whether his comments were made in an academic or diplomatic capacity.
Almost eleven months after Chinese Consul General and UQ Honorary Professor Xu Jie endorsed violent attacks against me and other students, UQ has labeled his comments “unacceptable,” saying they breached its code of conduct. When’s his expulsion hearing?https://t.co/itnP4IEUlV
— Drew Pavlou 柏乐志 (@DrewPavlou) May 22, 2020
Turning lawfare back on the CCP bully. Nice. He’s the hero of the populist press now, at Herald Sun:
When he’s not a “fire-breathing activist” taking on the insidious influence of China’s Communist Party in Australia, Drew Pavlou loves his two dachshunds Max and Luna, reading Shakespeare and chilling with his mates.
Becoming one of the world’s best-known student activists overnight after he took on one of Australia’s leading universities for its links to the Asian superpower, he said people often expected him to be serious like Greta Thunberg.
“I’m a human rights campaigner but I have never been a serious person. I love humour and satire,” the 20-year-old University of Queensland student said yesterday.
He said he fully expects the uni to expel him this week but believes it would be the best news because he wants to take the 110-year-old institution on in the Queensland Supreme Court … and win.
Mr Pavlou and his top-flight barrister Tony Morris QC, who is representing him pro bono, walked out of a disciplinary hearing last week, where he faced 11 allegations of misconduct listed in a 186-page document.
UQ management is as inept as it is treasonous.
