Sydney University faces calls to remove Hong Kong police job ad

Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed police force has placed a job advertisement on Sydney University’s careers page.

Hong Kong police officers during a protest in Hong Kong this month. Picture: AFP.

Australian students are being targeted in a global recruitment drive by Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed police force who are using job websites hosted by local universities to attract Sydney-based “fresh graduates” with Chinese language skills.

The revelation comes after the University of Sydney opened a brief investigation into an advertisement placed by Hong Kong police on the institution’s CareerHub website in the wake of a flurry of complaints from pro-democracy students who claimed it was not in the “national interest.”

Administrators were forced to briefly pull the advertisement from the popular careers page after some students complained to Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence and accused the university of entering into a “partnership” with a “notorious abuser of human rights.”

The Hong Kong police job ad on Sydney Uiveristy's website.

The advertisement, still available on the University of Sydney’s career page, invites “overseas students” and “fresh graduates” with a Bachelor’s degree to apply for a Police Inspector role with the Hong Kong Police Force by October 27.

James, who is an international student from Hong Kong at the University of Sydney and did not want his last name published, said the “outrageous” advertisement had infuriated pro-democracy activists.

“The uni should not promote the kind of jobs that could lead to the violation of human rights,” he told The Australian.

“Hong Kong’s police force did a lot of shady stuff and it’s just a cowardly move by the uni to not take the advertisement down.”

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said the advertisement had been “briefly hidden” and removed from public view while an investigation was conducted.

“In this case, an advertisement originally published on 28 September was briefly hidden yesterday (Monday) following receipt of a complaint,” she said.

“The advertisement is again live on our hub. As with all ads on the hub, it is accompanied by a disclaimer. This disclaimer makes clear we do not vouch for the accuracy of the information provided or endorse the organisation that has submitted the ad; students are also advised to verify any information provided for themselves.”

However, activists said the advertisement was particularly ominous given the passage of Beijing’s sweeping new security law in June.

“The law will affect foreign students in Hong Kong so it’s absurd Sydney uni is allowing police who will enforce that rule to put an advertisement up on their website,” James said.

The law grants Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of vaguely defined political crimes, including separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

Students who travel through Hong Kong could also face lengthy prison sentences on the basis of academic work deemed to be subversive by Chinese authorities.

“Some of USYD’s students studied at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where students were arrested during the siege and charged with all different types of offences,” said one Chinese student, who asked not to be identified because of fears of political retribution.

Police arrested hundreds of student protesters during the two-week siege of Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University in 2019, the site of some of the city’s most violent clashes.

One complainant who also asked not to be identified said it was “ridiculous” to try and recruit students in Australia to join the police force that is “solely responsible” for the enforcement of Beijing’s “draconian” security law.

In May, the University of Technology Sydney and Macquarie University pulled advertisements placed by Hong Kong’s police force in the wake of a backlash from pro-democracy activists.