Canberra pharmacy at front line of China's push for global influence

Angus Grigg, Lisa Murray and Primrose Riordan

Sep 1, 2016 – 11.45pm

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Already a subscriber?

The leader of a Chinese student group at the Australian National University in Canberra walked into the campus chemist last year and demanded to know who had "authorised" it to display a Chinese-language newspaper that published articles critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

Fearing a backlash by the many Chinese students studying at the Australian National University, owner Kim Nguyen agreed to immediately banish the Falun Gong newspaper from the University Pharmacy when she was told about the confrontation.

Angus Grigg is an investigative reporter based in Sydney. He has worked as a foreign correpondent in China and Indonesia, and has won two Walkley Awards.

Lisa Murray is Enterprise Journalism Editor and host of The Fin podcast.

Primrose Riordan covers private companies and family offices from the AFR's Sydney newsroom. Primrose was previously a correspondent for the Financial Times and covered foreign affairs and politics in Canberra. Primrose has won multiple awards for her journalism including from The National Press Club, SABEW in the US and Press Gazette in the UK. Message Primrose on Signal: https://tinyurl.com/PrimroseSignal