As Australian student Drew Pavlou found out the hard way, the Chinese Communist Party’s reach on university campuses is deep and disturbing.
Pavlou came to prominence when, in retaliation for his organising pro-Hong Kong protests at the University of Queensland, the university tried to suspend him – apparently at the behest of the Chinese government, which is a significant funder of the university. Pavlou has also been denounced by the CCP mouthpiece, Global Times, and physically attacked by alleged CCP goons.
Australian swimmer Mack Horton also found out just what happens to those who criticise China: his family home has been repeatedly vandalised and stalked by apparent CCP operatives and sympathisers.
But it’s not just in Australia that the CCP is extending its tentacles of influence on campuses.
Emerson College’s Turning Point USA chapter could be banned from campus after students reported them for handing out stickers critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
The sticker features a character from the popular video game Among Us with a hammer and sickle on its side and has a caption that reads “China kinda sus.”
As happened to Pavlou, college officials were quick to clamp down on criticism of China. Chinese student groups – said to often be CCP front groups – also joined in the attacks, condemning the stickers as “racist”.
[TPUSA] released a video four days ago on their social media platforms clarifying that the stickers were intended to criticize the Chinese government, which they point out is responsible “for the largest genocide in the world right now”, not Chinese people generally.
“We can criticize the atrocities committed by a country’s government” KJ Lynum, the club’s treasurer, said to Campus Reform, “without it reflecting our view of the people who come from that country.”
She concluded the organization’s response by demanding an apology from the individuals and groups who have accused Emerson TPUSA of racism.
Lynum, who was at the club’s table when the stickers were being distributed, told Campus Reform “the majority of the students that liked the sticker and commented on the sticker were Asian” and that they “had really good conversations about the CCP.”
TPUSA are being subjected to both official censure, and more overt attacks using tactics eerily similar to those employed against Pavlou and Horton.
Both Lynum and Neves have allegedly experienced harassment on campus as a result of the controversy.
Lynum told Campus Reform that she has had a drink spilled on her, been confronted by people waiting outside of her classes and often notices people looking at her while she’s moving around campus.
Campus Reform
For all their talk about “academic freedom”, it is becoming increasingly clear that universities across the West have sold their souls for Beijing’s tainted cash.
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