‘Foreign occupation’: Drew Pavlou blocked protesting CCP official by Queensland Police ‘liaison officers’
An anti-CCP activist has been confronted by Queensland Police “liaison officers” while trying to protest a visit by Xi Jinping’s “right-hand man” in Brisbane.
Queensland Police “liaison officers” have been filmed preventing activist Drew Pavlou from displaying a “disrespectful” sign during a visit by a Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “right hand man” in Brisbane.
Zhao Leji, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China and the third highest-ranking person in the Chinese government, touched down in Brisbane on Saturday for a high-level four-day visit.
Mr Pavlou, a former Queensland Senate candidate and serial protester against the CCP who has had multiple run-ins with police at similar events, attempted to hold up a sign during a stop by Chairman Zhao to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Fig Tree Pocket in Brisbane’s west on Sunday.
The “joke” sign read, in English and Chinese, “Gold Coast luxury condos for sale. Xi is very angry with you. Defect now while you still can.”
In footage of the stunt shared online, the 26-year-old attempts to interview several CCP supporters waiting for Chairman Zhao before he is approached by Queensland Police officers.
“You coming here today to film celebrate, whatever? You going to do any protest whatsoever?” one asks.
“I’m just standing in the open,” Mr Pavlou responds.
“As long as you don’t do anything silly you’re not going to be arrested or something like that, OK?” the officer says. “As long as you don’t yell, you don’t swear, if you’re just coming here to basically watch this crowd …”
Two Queensland Police liaison officers then get involved and take issue with his sign.
According to the Queensland Police website, liaison officers are employed “to establish and maintain a positive rapport between culturally specific communities and the QPS”.
“Nothing offensive, no insults or swear words,” Mr Pavlou tells the officers. “I’m not going to yell or do anything. I’m exercising my free speech as an Australian citizen.”
The female liaison officer tells her colleagues, “Even it’s not [offensive] it’s still probably potentially disrespectful … it may not be right at this point for security and safety.”
Footage shows Queensland Police consulting with the stern-looking male liaison officer before the first officer returns.
“Update — they’re [not] going to take your poster, they’re not stopping you from basically expressing your opinions and everything … but this part here is basically restricted for supporters and everything,” he says. “But you can … you see this green bench here, you can stand there.”
“That’s pretty unfair, though,” Mr Pavlou says. “At that point I may as well protesting on the river down there.”
Another officer informs him that “this whole front area has been allocated for supporters … you can stand back behind the supporters”.
They move him away before the female liaison officer — who was holding up her phone throughout the interaction — asks to take a photo of Mr Pavlou, without giving a reason.
“Of course, it’s going online as well,” he tells her.
As Chairman Zhao arrives, CCP supporters waving large Chinese flags move in front of Mr Pavlou to block his view.
He stands on the bench to yell, “Mr Leji, we support you, Mr Leji, defect now before Xi comes,” before the first police officer grabs him by his pants and pulls him down.
Mr Pavlou is then escorted back to his car by officers.
“It was amazing,” Mr Pavlou says in the video.
“There was Chinese Australian police liaison officers. They demanded to see my sign, they wanted to assess whether it would be considered ‘disrespectful’ to the Chinese Communist Party leadership.”
Mr Pavlou says the experience “honestly made me think, what country am I even living in?”
“I felt that I was under a foreign occupation,” he says.
“I could not even protest in my own country without Chinese Communist Party supporters surrounding me, jostling me, covering my small protest sign with these massive Chinese flags, booming out the Chinese anthem on a loudspeaker.”
Speaking to news.com.au on Wednesday, Mr Pavlou stressed it was not about race.
“Imagine if [French President] Emmanuel Macron was coming to Australia,” he said.
“It would be extremely strange if the police decided to bring out French police liaison officers, speaking French, questioning whether your signs are respectful enough of Macron. Everyone would think it’s very weird.”
He said the other officers threatened to arrest him if he engaged in what they “determined to be hate speech or racist actions”.
“It feels extraordinarily weird being surrounded by 1000 bussed-in CCP supporters and there are Chinese police liaison officers surrounding you making sure the visiting CCP dignitary doesn’t see your sign out of the corner of his eye,” he said.
“It feels like multiculturalism is being abused in service of a foreign dictatorship.”
The Queensland Police website says the role of police liaison officers “is to promote trust and understanding by assisting the community and police to reduce and prevent crime … divert people from the criminal justice system … advise and educate police officers on culture and cultural issues … and improve community knowledge of law and order issues and policing services”.
“The specialist ‘liaison role’ performed by a Police Liaison Officer does not require powers of a police officer,” it says. “However, they may be called upon to assist police officers with law enforcement tasks in certain circumstances.”
Police liaison officers earn up to $80,824 per year, according to a recent job posting.
The role requires a two-week induction course delivered at the Queensland Police Academy at Oxley in Brisbane.
“This course informs Police Liaison Officers of their rights, entitlements, duties and obligations as Queensland Police Service members,” the listing reads.
“In addition, PLOs are encouraged to continue training through the Queensland Police Service staff member training programs and other external agencies to enhance career opportunities and skills portfolios.”
The female police liaison officer in the video, who warned Mr Pavlou’s sign was “disrespectful”, was born in Taiwan, according to a 2021 profile on the Queensland Police website for Harmony Week.
“Harmony Week definitely highlights the joy of how we can embrace the diversity of different cultures and faiths in our community or country, and how we can take this opportunity to acknowledge the similarities and differences of so many ethnicities,” she is quoted as saying in the article.
“Really, ‘we are all and we are one’ and as the Chinese philosopher, Confucius says, ‘a great community requires harmonious human relations’. I hope we can all continue to use our differences to come together.”
There is no suggestion that the police liaison officers acted improperly or beyond the scope of their role.
Queensland Police confirmed there were currently nine Chinese-speaking police liaison officers across the state.
“Their role includes liaising with the community, advising police officers on the cultural beliefs, needs and protocols of the communities, identifying potential disorder problems and improving community access to policing services,” a spokesman said.
“All PLOs undertake vetting and security checks prior to commencing employment, including criminal and traffic history and declarable associations.
“Officers present had body worn camera (BWC) footage of the incident and investigations were undertaken in relation to the sign a man was holding at the time towards the delegation.
“Officers requested PLOs take pictures of the content of the sign (written in both English and Chinese) to translate the content, ensuring no offences were being committed under the hate crime legislation.
“The PLO asked the man’s permission to take the photo.”
Large crowds of eager supporters have met Chairman Zhao throughout his visit to Brisbane and Canberra.
He was welcomed on the tarmac by House Speaker Milton Dick.
His visit includes engagements reflecting the importance of parliamentary exchanges in strengthening dialogue and deepening people-to-people links between Australia and China, according to the federal government.
The visit comes after Senator Sue Lines visited China last October, as well as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to the country in July this year where he met with Chairman Zhao for the second time.
Mr Albanese’s July trip marked his second official visit to China.
He managed to meet with President Xi while in Beijing and Premier Li Qiang at the Annual Leaders’ Meeting.
The Prime Minister also met with businesses to discuss trade and business ties.
A new tourism ad campaign reviving the tourism icon Ruby the Roo — a Mandarin-speaking kangaroo — and featuring A-list Chinese actor Yu Shi is part of this renewed agreement and was spruiked by the Prime Minister.
But the trips come under the shadow of an increased militaristic rivalry with China — including two People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) frigates and a replenishment vessel conducting live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea earlier this year.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday said China had a “consequential relationship” in the Pacific and Australia still wanted one where they could co-operate with the superpower.
“I describe it to Australians as co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest, and that’s the approach we take,” Ms Wong told host Palki Sharma on the Indian-run news website Firstpost.
Asked if Australia would intervene militarily if China made a move on Taiwan, Ms Wong said she wasn’t going to respond to “hypotheticals”.
“What I would say is Australia’s position, and I think it is India’s position, is that we don’t want to see any unilateral change to the status quo,” she said.
“China will continue to assert its interests, and it’s doing what great powers do, which is to assert its interests.
“The challenge for Australia is, and I suspect for some other countries, is that some of those interests don’t align with our own, and so the question for diplomats is how do you manage that, how do you deal with it?
“And we deal with that, in part, through our other relationships, so how we envisage the Indo-Pacific is a region in balance, strategic balance, where various countries make a contribution to security that enables that balance, and India is central to that.”
— with NewsWire
Originally published as ‘Foreign occupation’: Drew Pavlou blocked protesting CCP official by Queensland Police ‘liaison officers’
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