In February 2019, a female Chinese born and resident student, attending the Australian National University in Canberra, made a comment in class. To an Australian who heard her comment, they would think nothing of it, the comment she made was just part of the normal exchange of ideas and thoughts that happen all of the time in class and interacting with other students on campus. But that isn’t the end of the story.

It is very common, normal, for students in Australia from China, to monitor each other and to report any conduct by one of their fellow Chinese students that would not be tolerated in China, to the embassy. In recent studies in the United States, professors reported that they assumed that their Chinese students were reporting on each other back to China. It’s a wise student who reports a fellow student who steps out of line. Because if it’s found out that you were aware of the comment, remark, behaviour, and did not report it, then you will fall under suspicion of condoning it. The added bonus of reporting a fellow student is that it is likely to benefit you in your relations with the Chinese Communist Party.

Now back to our Chinese student who made a remark of a kind that she would not have made if she was in China. In under two hours of the remark being made, her parents, in China, received a house visit from the Ministry of State Security. They were warned about their daughter’s behaviour. Such a thing must never happen again – or else. The “or else’s” can come in many forms. The parents might be punished, she might be recalled to China.

Australia is not doing a lot to stop this behaviour in our country by the Chinese Communist Party interfering in our domestic affairs. It’s not only Chinese students visiting Australia from China who are subjected to this intimidation, but potentially anyone of Chinese ancestry who has lived in Australia going back many generations who might find themselves on the receiving end of being punished.

In this programme I’m continuing looking at how the Chinese Communist Party coerces Australians of Chinese ancestry, and Chinese people visiting Australia, to behave the way it demands.

Tag words: Australian National University; ANU; Chinese Communist Party; CCP; Epoch Times; Falun-Gong; Tao Pinru; McMaster University; Three Belief Crises; National Intelligence Law; Global Times; Zhaoi Ziyang; President Xi Jinping; Chen Yonglin;