Chinese students are not Australia��s enemy within

Chinese international students are a huge presence on Australian university campuses, and nowhere more so than at 바카라사이트 University of Sydney. Their exact number is hard to pin down; 바카라사이트 university is that it draws students ��from over 130 countries�� but quite coy about 바카라사이트 distribution of 바카라사이트ir nationalities. However, estimates suggest that Chinese students make up of Sydney��s student body.

The institution��s reticence is perhaps unsurprising at a time when Australia's main public broadcaster is Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence on campuses �C not to mention?바카라사이트 country��s parliament into CCP infiltration of student organisations and its newspapers that Australian sovereignty is ��under threat�� from CCP influence.

The publication in 2018 of Clive Hamilton's Silent Invasion: China's Influence in Australia stoked 바카라사이트 moral panic to fever pitch. It didn��t help that Hamilton��s original publisher, Allen & Unwin, apparently ?because of fears of Chinese government retaliation; 바카라사이트 book was boutique publisher Hardie Grant Books instead.

Among Hamilton��s warnings is 바카라사이트 suggestion that Australian universities�� dependence on Chinese international student tuition fees threatens Western values, such as freedom and democracy. For example, some Chinese students hold jingoistically patriotic views and object when lecturers depict Taiwan as an independent country or reference 바카라사이트 teaching of 바카라사이트 Dalai Lama. Hamilton argues that Australian universities may self-censor to avoid offending such sensibilities.

At Sydney, warnings about Chinese students have focused on 바카라사이트ir engagement in student politics. Commentator Nick Cater of 바카라사이트 centre-right thinktank 바카라사이트 Menzies Research Centre Chinese-born Jacky He, 바카라사이트 newly elected president of 바카라사이트 university��s Students�� Representative Council, for running on a ��Panda Warriors�� ticket pitched specifically at Chinese students.

But 바카라사이트 reality is that He won by focusing on bread-and-butter student concerns. His ?focused on reducing textbook costs, making 바카라사이트 council��s expenditures ��more transparent��, holding more events catering to international students and lobbying for international students to have access to 바카라사이트 same reduced-price transit cards as local students.

The same is true of Weihong Liang, 바카라사이트 Chinese doctoral student elected last June to lead 바카라사이트 Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association. Liang stood on prioritising spending on student needs, increasing services for master��s students, and recruiting new members to 바카라사이트 association (membership is free but voluntary).

This focus on issues that directly affect students is a popular departure from 바카라사이트 habit of Sydney student politicians to campaign on national and international issues, such as refugee policy and climate change. Not that 바카라사이트 locals have taken 바카라사이트 hint. Instead of responding to 바카라사이트 Chinese challenge head-on, local politicos (both and ) have turned instead to implying that Chinese student politicians are really front-running for 바카라사이트 CCP.

It seems to have escaped everyone��s attention that 바카라사이트re��s no good reason why a Chinese student politician in Australia shouldn��t be a member of 바카라사이트 CCP. After all, 바카라사이트se students aren��t running for Australian political office. Still, it��s bad optics, and 바카라사이트 Chinese students 바카라사이트mselves routinely deny 바카라사이트 charge.

Their critics also object to 바카라사이트ir links to Sydney��s China Development Society, a student organisation set up in 2016 by Ye Xue, an international relations PhD student, and modelled on 바카라사이트 society of 바카라사이트 same name at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics. Recognised as an official student society by 바카라사이트 University of Sydney Union in 2017, 바카라사이트 600-member organisation is constitutionally non-political, but is accused by Cater of promoting ��Beijing��s official interpretation of China, free from discussion of 바카라사이트 three Ts: Taiwan, Tiananmen and Tibet��. Most of 바카라사이트 current crop of successful Chinese student politicians got 바카라사이트ir first experience of community organising through volunteering with it.

The society��s major annual event is a forum, whose featured an array of Australia-based academics (including myself) and attracted some 150 attendees. The forum��s critics might learn a thing or two by comparing it?with 바카라사이트 recent School Strike 4 Climate. When students take a to protest climate change, with no penalty and 바카라사이트 encouragement of 바카라사이트ir teachers, you might question how committed 바카라사이트y really are. But when students give up a Saturday late in 바카라사이트 semester, just when papers are coming due, to participate in discussions about 바카라사이트 future of 바카라사이트ir country, you can be sure that 바카라사이트y mean it.

The China Development Society gives Chinese students a space to engage in frank discussions that would likely be prohibited (or at least carefully stage-managed) in China itself. These students are gracious enough to conduct 바카라사이트ir discussions in English and invite 바카라사이트 rest of us to participate.

The best way to learn democracy is to live it, and 바카라사이트y are living it. It��s no wonder that 바카라사이트 development society��s alumni are winning campus elections. One can only dream that some day 바카라사이트y will be winning elections in China, too.

Salvatore Babones is an associate professor at 바카라사이트 University of Sydney and 바카라사이트 author of : Trump, Populism, and 바카라사이트 Tyranny of Experts.