University of NSW condemned after pulling article critical of China’s Hong Kong record

The University of New South Wales is facing criticism over the deletion of an article critical of China’s human rights record.

 

The Australian director of Human Rights Watch says it is “deeply worrying” that the University of NSW pulled an article where she made comments critical of China’s human rights record in Hong Kong from its Twitter channel.

A tweet from UNSW sharing the article which quotes Elaine Pearson, who is also an adjunct law lecturer at the university, was removed following backlash from Chinese students. In the article, Ms Pearson called for the United Nations to establish a special envoy to investigate the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong, following China’s crackdown on national security in the region.

“I think it is deeply worrying. Universities are the bastion of free speech and academic freedom,” she told The Australian.

“This is not just something with UNSW. There’s been lots of concerns at Australian universities around academic freedom and particularly around Chinese government threats to that.”

Ms Pearson called on the university sector in Australia to reflect on what academic freedom means to prevent institutions bowing to international pressure.

“It means not allowing yourself to be bullied or censoring the stories of staff,” she said.

“Clearly those pro-CCP supporters feel like they can bully the university into censoring certain views. I think the university needs to make it very clear that it is absolutely not negotiable.”

THREAD: I’m belatedly weighing in on a recent @UNSW article on Hong Kong which quotes me. I am an adjunct lecturer in law @UNSW as well as the Australia Director @hrw. https://t.co/E0M7UMPyoV pic.twitter.com/cMOKwD3UrS

— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) August 2, 2020

Mrs Pearson is seeking further clarification from UNSW on why the post was temporarily removed from the website, but has not received a response yet.

One day after the article appeared, Ms Pearson was the target of an article posted in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times, often seen as Beijing’s voice.

“Although the article was soon deleted, students who are still outraged have said the university’s behaviour brings ‘shame to Chinese students’ and demanded an apology,” the Global Times reported at the weekend.

“If the university maintains its tough stance, I will quit the school instead,” one student, who went by the pseudonym Lin Xia, told the publication.

Human Rights Watch Australia Director Elaine Pearson. Picture: Supplied

UNSW, which had posted Ms Pearson’s piece to its Twitter platform on Friday, added an extraordinary disclaimer that “the opinions expressed by our academics do not always represent the views of UNSW”. “We have a long and valued relationship with Greater China going back 60 years,” the UNSW account tweeted.

UNSW subsequently removed both the original tweet and the disclaimer distancing the university from the article.

The university also removed the article from its website, before reinstating Ms Pearson’s work.

Security forces keep an eye on a student protest in Hong Kong. Picture: Jayne Russell

Ms Pearson, who is an adjunct lecturer at the university, wrote: “Liberal democracies who are concerned about these extraordinary actions, that really fly in the face of Hong Kong’s basic law, need to call out the Chinese government for what they are doing.”

“I certainly think there’s more scope for Australia to provide more humanitarian visas to people from Hong Kong,” she said in the article.

China has criticised offers from Australia and Britain of safe haven visas for Hong Kong nationals who want to leave the country after a Beijing-led crackdown.

A UNSW spokeswoman said that the Twitter post — linking to Ms Pearson’s commentary — had been removed because it was “being misconstrued as representing the university”.

“UNSW Sydney decided to remove the posts on our social channels as they were not in line with our policies,” she said.