Lawyers look at threats to Adelaide University China students

A legal panel is considering a ‘snitching scandal’ involving Chinese students at the University of Adelaide.

A legal panel is considering a “snitching scandal” involving Chinese students at the University of Adelaide that saw some threatened with being reported to the Chinese embassy in ­Canberra for alleged anti-­communist activity.

It comes amid calls by Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi for the university to conduct an investigation and for any international students ­“dobbing in fellow ­nationals” for participating in democracy to be suspended or expelled, and stripped of elected positions.

Chinese students at the university were threatened with being reported for allegedly campaigning against communism during student elections last month. A key complaint was that a threatening message was circulated via the messaging platform WeChat.

The message targeted students who were promoting a political banner that said “Jobs not Socialism”. The WeChat message claimed the banner was “openly against socialism and communism”, and warned that participators’ details had been reported to the embassy.

Chinese students told The Weekend Australian “intimidating behaviour” during the election campaign had left many “freaking out” and concerned about the consequences for themselves and their families.

University administrators say the university is not involved in the running of student elections.

“The Adelaide University Union ... has a process for handling such complaints,” a union spokesman said.

AUU returning officer ­Andrew Klima has declined to comment. The union’s communications manager, Kearin Haus­ler, said complaints were handed to an independent three-person tribunal. “Student elections at the University of Adelaide are some of the most highly regulated and scrutinised nationally,” he said. “The three members of the tribunal are all lawyers with no affiliation to the Adelaide University Union.”

Oscar Ong, a Malaysian-­Chinese aerospace engineering student, said he was so dissatisfied with the outcome of his complaint to Mr Klima over threatening behaviour that he had asked for it to be referred to the tribunal.

In correspondence between AUU and students, provided to The Weekend Australian, Mr Klima said the threatening ­material was on a social media page and “there are no clear rules ... relating to personal posts on personal social media pages”.

However, the correspondence said one of those respon­sible “would not be able to continue campaigning for the ­remainder of the election week ... (and) was also required to issue a public apology to anyone who may have had a negative ­reaction”.

A spokesman for International Student Association Inc said the issue had caused “genuine safety concerns for a variety of students, impression of foreign meddling and negative ­effects to the education industry among parents”.