cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/51312620
Australia’s human rights commissioner has said the Chinese student who was allegedly jailed for six years by Chinese authorities for joining protests in Sydney underscores the “very real and growing risks of transnational repression affecting people in Australia – including international students”.
Commissioner Lorraine Finlay told Guardian Australia that while she could not comment on the circumstances of individual cases “no one should fear punishment abroad for exercising their lawful rights to free expression and peaceful protest here”.
The University of Sydney student went missing in December 2024 after returning to China and was allegedly charged with secession and sentenced to six years’ jail for joining events including two solidarity protests for China’s ethnic minorities.
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Finlay also called on the Albanese government to introduce a dedicated parliamentary inquiry into transnational repression to understand the scope of the problem.
“[Australia needs the inquiry to] hear directly from those affected and identify concrete steps to better protect human rights on Australian soil,” Finlay said. “Such an inquiry would send a clear message about our commitment to protecting democratic freedoms in Australia.”
Chinese international student activists have also expressed concerns over their safety after the case.
John*, a Chinese student who came to Sydney to study two years ago, told Guardian Australia he was “shocked but not surprised” about the student’s arrest.
“I feel sad for the student,” said John, who asked to use a pseudonym due to safety concerns.
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In China, protest as a form of free speech is often subject to heavy surveillance from authorities, regardless of its nature. John, who had participated in rallies in Sydney, said he had been “mentally prepared” for retribution, even if he described the agenda of the protests he attended as “relatively safe” and not directly critical of China.
“The case had made me a bit more concerned about my safety when participating in protests in Sydney,” he said.
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Emma said she understood it could be difficult for universities to take action if a student was already subjected to foreign repression. “But [universities] may be able to offer more support to those [at risk of repression] to seek asylum in Australia.”
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The majority of chinese people hate separatism, so I don't see how any of these separatist protests are democratic
Not that I think you would pretend to understand, but peaceful protests - which is what these were - are fundamentally democratic. The freedom of opinion is integral part of democracy, whether is is expressed by a majority or minority doesn't matter.
I think this is very idealistic and ignores the crushing pressure of US global influence campaigns. Most of these "freedom and democracy" protest groups are seeded by and funded by State Department subsidiaries like the National Endowment for Democracy and have the explicit purpose of inciting enthnonationalism in strategic regions of geopolitical rivals with the ultimate goal of balkanization, immiseration, and exploitation of their working classes. You only need to look at what happened to Yugoslavia to understand that they are working from a template. They've done this hundreds of times before!
Upholding liberal democratic values does not translate to democracy. In fact, it usually leads to the opposite as exemplified by every liberal democratic country's unyielding support for Israel.
The US is actually currently illegally sanctioning the Xinjiang region in an attempt to immiserate the local population and reactivate their wahabbist terrorist cells. Of course, the Xinjiang region is coincidentally the most important region for the belt and road initiative as it pertains to west Asia, which is the most important region for US hegemony because of the uh, oil.
This might seem unrelated to democracy, but it's actually one of the major reasons why western academia is so obsessed with democratic purity. That's because it is the main lever of power that the US and its predecessor Britain have used to internally fuck with any country they want.
These protests only represent and further the interests of American oligarchs like Thiel, Bezos and Musk
Because making a minority opinion known is democratic? You can disagree with the opinion, but this is just stupid