MP Gladys Liu lauds protesters in Hong Kong

Chinese Australian MP Gladys Liu has backed anti-government protesters in her birthplace of Hong Kong.

Gladys Liu at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Chinese Australian MP Gladys Liu has backed anti-government protesters in her birthplace of Hong Kong, lauding their “passion and commitment to democracy”.

Her comments, which followed condemnation of the protests by Beijing, are the Victorian MP’s strongest show of support yet for the protest movement, and could spark a backlash by supporters of the Chinese government in ­Australia.

Ms Liu urged the protesters to try to resolve the dispute through “peaceful dialogue” — reiterating sentiments that had previously put backers of the protest movement off-side.

However, she told The Aus­tralian she firmly endorsed the protest movement, and its aims.

“As a proud Hong Kong-born Australian, my position has been clear,” Ms Liu said. “The significant number of people in Hong Kong who have taken to the streets to voice their concerns demonstrates to the world the kind of passion and commitment to democracy that the people of Hong Kong hold.”

The issue is a delicate one for the newly elected federal MP, who has a large number of constituents in her Victorian seat of Chisholm who were born in mainland China.

The Australian last week revealed Ms Liu asked chief spy Duncan Lewis whether ASIO could vet people seeking meetings with her, and whether she should delete the popular Chinese social media platform WeChat from her mobile phone.

Ms Liu’s declaration of support for the protesters comes ahead of a possible showdown on the issue today at the University of Queensland, where Chinese students clashed with pro-Hong Kong protesters last week. UQ student Drew Pavlov said another pro-Hong Kong rally was planned at the university for 11am today.

He said students intended to defy orders from the university to stay in a “designated protest zone” away from UQ’s Confucius Institute and a student union-funded memorial to the Tiananmen Square massacre. As the protests in Hong Kong entered their eighth consecutive week, the Chinese government denounced what it said were “horrendous incidents” that had caused “serious damage to the rule of law”.