Facing down death threats: Meet the student standing up to China
Drew Pavlou became one of the world’s best-known student activists after he took on a leading Australian university for its links to the Asian superpower. But his fight has taken its toll with social media death threats from mainland China and even Chinese students here.
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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.
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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.
“It’s the vibe. It’s justice. It’s Mabo, it’s the vibe,” Mr Pavlou said outside the hearing, channelling Dennis Denuto in the movie The Castle.
He shot to international fame last year when he was among a group attacked by Chinese nationalists while protesting in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Mr Pavlou’s activism was condemned by the consulate-general of China in Brisbane, Dr Xu Jie, an adjunct professor to the university.
For the student of philosophy, history and English literature, it was also his satire and stunts that got him into trouble as he aimed them at Beijing. The complaints against him include posing outside vice-chancellor Peter Hoj’s office wearing a Hazmat suit.
Professor Hoj has been a consultant to Beijing’s global Confucius Institute, of which there are hundreds around the world and 13 at Australian universities.
He also promoted a fake Confucius Institute panel discussion about “why Uighurs must be exterminated”, a pointed attack on the persecution of the ethnic minority in China.
He said yesterday that he had a lot of support from students from around Australia, including those at the University of Sydney, who are also worried about the lack of human rights in China.
A Chinese human rights magazine called him “the most famous undergraduate student in the world” and he has featured in The Washington Post. Mr Pavlou said he always wanted to be an activist but expected to wait until he had graduated.
Now he has shelved plans to be an academic and may give politics a go — as an independent.
“I’m often portrayed as a troublemaker, someone who is hard, but I like having a laugh. I’m a young bloke,” Mr Pavlou, the oldest of three kids in a Greek-Cypriot family, said.
“In person I’m a little bit more quiet. I’m a bit of a softy and my dogs are the loves of my life. But then I get pumped and I get into fire-breathing mode. I do like causing trouble.”
A member of the university senate representing 35,000 students, Mr Pavlou is not racist and has a lot of great Chinese friends and supporters. However, he said China’s recent trade threats against Australia for calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 just confirm the nation is a thug and a bully.
As a literature student he loves Richard Flanagan and refugee writer Behrouz Boochani but his favourite is Shakespeare, because of the Bard’s ability to force readers into empathy for characters they may otherwise dismiss, such as Shylock in the Merchant of Venice who is more complex than he first appears.
“I’m a great believer in the power of literature to transform lives and let us see the humanity in others.”
The fight however has taken its toll with countless death threats made through his Facebook page from mainland China and even Chinese students in Australia. They have been reported to police.
“It’s been really intense and I am a bit tired at the moment but I don’t regret any of it whatsoever,” he said.
Originally published as Facing down death threats: Meet the student standing up to China
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