An Australian university on Friday excluded a student who campaigned for Hong Kong independence and criticized the Chinese government for two years.
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The Disciplinary Council of the University of Queensland has indicated that Drew Pavlou will be expelled for two years. However, she did not give more details about this decision. Drew Pavlou told AFP that he had not been given any reason to justify the sanction but that it was intended to silence him and remove him from his seat on the institution’s elected governing body. " It is an obvious attempt to silence my political activism ," he said in a statement. " I didn't think it would get there, " added the student.
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Australian media have claimed that the disciplinary measure was over 180 pages long, over which he is accused of posting inflammatory language on social media, disrupting protests and using a pen he said he had not not paid, at a campus store. He said he plans to appeal the decision, saying it is an attempt to protect the " dirty " business interests of the university and the Chinese Communist Party. University Chancellor Peter Varghese has said a meeting will be held to discuss the exclusion. " Certain aspects of the conclusions and the severity of the penalty concern me personally, " he said.
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Last year, Drew Pavlou drew international attention when a demonstration, in which he participated, was followed on campus by clashes between pro and anti-Beijing. The Chinese Consul General in Brisbane called the organizers of the demonstration separatists. More than 181,000 Chinese are enrolled in Australian universities, contributing more than 6.8 billion dollars (6.1 billion euros) to the Australian economy each year.
