THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019 | 3

World

The Chinese nationalists disrupting pro-

Hong Kong democracy rallies at the

University of Queensland arrived 300

strong, with a loudspeaker to blast Chi-

na’s national anthem. They deferred to a

leader in a pink shirt. And their tactics

included violence.

One video from the scene at one of

Australia’s major universities, in Bris-

bane, shows a student from Hong Kong

being grabbed by the throat. Another

shows a philosophy student, Drew

Pavlou, 20, shouting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Xi

Jinping has got to go,” until a counter-

protester throws his megaphone aside.

The altercations, which took place a

week ago in the university’s main

square, were broken up by the police,

but experts believe it could be a dark

omen of what is to come as the passions

of Hong Kong protesters ripple to other

countries.

A similar scuffle broke out on Tuesday

at the University of Auckland in New

Zealand, when three Chinese men were

filmed shouting down students from

Hong Kong at a rally and pushing a

young woman to the ground.

For Australia in particular, the actions

signal trouble after years of gliding

along and growing rich off China’s

growth. Australian universities have

come to depend on Chinese donors, stu-

dents and organizations that are often

loyal to Beijing and intolerant of dissent.

More collisions with China’s muscular

nationalism now seem likely. Racist

chants and insults have been traded,

along with punches. The Chinese Con-

sulate in Brisbane praised the “sponta-

neous patriotic behavior” of the pro-

China activists — leading the Australian

defense minister to take the extraordi-

nary step of warning foreign diplomats

against attempts to suppress free

speech.

Deconstructing what led to the

clashes last Wednesday, through inter-

views, online messages and videos, sug-

gests how volatile, racially charged and

violent any reckoning with China may

become.

“It would certainly be nice if it didn’t

escalate, but I remain quite concerned

that the entire way this has been han-

dled makes copycat attacks inevitable,”

said Kevin Carrico, a senior lecturer in

Chinese studies at Monash University in

Melbourne. “It’s quite worrying.”

NEW ACTIVISTS AND NEW CAUSES

The July 24 protest began with two stu-

dents: Jack Yiu, 21, a quiet psychology

major from Hong Kong, and Mr. Pavlou,

a chatty grandson of Greek immigrants

from Brisbane.

Both new to activism, they hadn’t

known each other until a few weeks be-

fore. Until recently, Mr. Yiu had led the

University of Queensland’s Hong Kong

Student Association, holding benign ac-

tivities like welcome dinners. Mr. Pavlou

was known on campus for starting a

popular Facebook group for intellectual

debate.

But recent events involving China,

they said, forced them to act. Mr. Yiu

said he had friends in Hong Kong

marching for democracy and against a

bill that would have allowed extradition

to mainland China. Mr. Pavlou said his

own outrage was prompted by reading

about Xinjiang, a region of China where

the government has pushed minority

Muslims into re-education camps.

Adding to his anger, he discovered

that his university had cultivated close

ties with Chinese officials. While the

University of Queensland is one of sev-

eral universities with a Confucius Insti-

tute — officially a program to promote

Chinese language and culture — the

vice chancellor, Peter Hoj, has made

more of that relationship than his peers

have.

At the University of Queensland, the

Confucius Institute plays a broader role,

emphasizing collaboration with China in

science, engineering and technology.

Until late last year, Mr. Hoj was an un-

paid consultant for the Confucius Insti-

tute headquarters. In July, he granted a

visiting professorship to the Chinese

consul general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, a

Communist Party official.

“It’s part of this China illiteracy, which

is quite prevalent in Australia,” said

Louisa Lim, a professor at the Univer-

sity of Melbourne and the author of “The

People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tianan-

men Revisited.”

“In many cases,” she said, “the allure

of Chinese investment and large num-

bers of Chinese students has been so

overwhelming that educational institu-

tions have just thrown their arms wide

open without doing their due diligence.”

In a statement on its website about

the protests and its relationship with

China, the University of Queensland

said that the consul general would not

be teaching and was one of 260 titlehold-

ers appointed in recent years.

But for Mr. Pavlou, who is majoring

primarily in philosophy, his university’s

warm welcome has legitimized a culture

of disinformation and censorship. He

said his anger crystallized after a stu-

dent Facebook group called Stalk-

erSpace filled up with pro-China state-

ments around the 30th anniversary of

the Tiananmen Square massacre in

June.

“I saw all these people denying things

that happened or stating the official gov-

ernment line on it, and, like, to me that

was really disgusting and horrifying,”

Mr. Pavlou said.

A recent poll of Australians’ views on

foreign affairs, by the Lowy Institute

found that many Australians were expe-

riencing a similar shift: Only 32 percent

of respondents said that they trusted

China either “a great deal” or “some-

what” to act responsibly, a 20-point fall

from 2018.

Mr. Pavlou said the recent protests in

Hong Kong were an inspiration. He

found Mr. Yiu through other activists,

and they agreed to back-to-back rallies

on July 24: The Hong Kong students

would start at 10 a.m.; Mr. Pavlou and

his group, broadening the focus to the

university’s China ties, would start at

noon. Mr. Pavlou posted a notice of the

event on Facebook. That’s when the

trouble started.

COUNTERPROTESTERS EMERGE

“Yo bro where u from? Australia?” said

the Facebook message from an account

with the name Frank Wang. “If so u bet-

ter want to stay away from political

problem.”

“Cancel the event,” the message con-

tinued. “If u keep doing this, uv gonna

face millions of people on your opposite

side.”

Other messages were more ag-

gressive. Mixing Chinese and English,

some people called Mr. Pavlou a white

pig, using a pig emoji. One comment in

Chinese said: “When will you die.”

Mr. Pavlou was drawn into trading in-

sults with some of them. “It was out of

fear and anger,” he said. “It was silly. I

regret it.”

Nonetheless, he carried on. The first

protest was uneventful. A wall filled up

with sticky notes of support, mirroring

those in Hong Kong. But by the time Mr.

Pavlou and a few others started their

protest, a crowd had gathered.

Several people there estimated that

about 300 people — appearing to be a

mix of Chinese students and nonstu-

dents — appeared suddenly. Within min-

utes, someone had grabbed Mr. Pavlou’s

megaphone, prompting him to jump up

and push back.

Security guards intervened, but the

leader of the counterprotesters de-

manded an apology on China’s behalf.

“We tried to talk to them,” Mr. Yiu

said. “On the megaphone, I told them,

we’re just fighting for Hong Kong de-

mocracy, not independence.”

By 2:15 p.m., it had grown tense. Mr.

Pavlou, who had continued the protest

inside the Confucius Institute’s offices,

re-emerged to see 50 or so Hong Kong

students surrounded.

Priya De, 22, a leader with the social-

ist group that connected Mr. Yiu and Mr.

Pavlou, said she heard white Austral-

ians shouting “Go back to China” at the

Chinese students, and “Deport them,

deport them.”

A video shot by a Hong Kong student

showed David Chui, 23, a business stu-

dent from Hong Kong, being grabbed by

the throat and thrown to the ground.

Christy Leung, 21, another Hong

Kong student, said a sign was torn from

her hands and her clothing ripped. She

and Mr. Chui went to the police to press

charges. They were told there was noth-

ing they could do.

“I don’t know how to be hopeful,” Ms.

Leung said. “People told me to report it

and I did, but it didn’t work.”

THE AFTERMATH

Mr. Pavlou’s group was planning an-

other protest this week. The university

said that it had opened an investigation

into the clash, and it issued a statement

defending free speech but proposing

that the demonstration be held in a more

remote area of campus.

“It’s simply a way to starve the pro-

test of visibility,” Mr. Pavlou said.

Some students said they would rather

see the planned protest canceled. A half-

dozen students from mainland China in-

terviewed around campus on Tuesday

called any demonstration against Chi-

nese influence unnecessary and use-

less.

Some activists on the left, noting that

the Hong Kong Student Association was

not involved, said they worried that any

protest led by Australians who were not

from Hong Kong or mainland China

would only contribute to anti-Chinese

racism.

But for Mr. Pavlou, Mr. Yiu and many

others, there is no turning back. A group

of Tibetan students has aligned with Mr.

Pavlou’s group, calling for the university

to shut down its Confucius Institute.

Mr. Yiu and his fellow Hong Kong stu-

dents are planning more rallies, coordi-

nating with groups all over Australia.

“People in Hong Kong are risking

their lives,” Ms. Leung said. “The

threats we faced last week are nothing

compared to them. We have to stand up.

With them.”

Hong Kong fight jars Australian university

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

Pro-China activists mobilize

to quash support of city’s

democracy movement

BY DAMIEN CAVE

Pro-China students, above, at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Below, the university’s vice chancellor, Peter Hoj, right, with Xu Jie, the Chinese consul general

in Brisbane. Australian universities have come to depend on Chinese donors, students and organizations that are often loyal to Beijing and intolerant of dissent.

DREW PAVLOU

THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN BRISBANE

Lawmakers in Congress from both polit-

ical parties have accused the Trump ad-

ministration of delaying an $8 billion

sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the

self-governing democratic island off the

coast of China that is supported by the

United States.

Chinese officials have said they object

strongly to the sale of 66 jets requested

by Taiwan, which would be by far the

largest such purchase by its govern-

ment in many years. Lawmakers are

now questioning whether the Trump ad-

ministration is delaying approval of the

sale, either to avoid upsetting Beijing

while delicate trade negotiations are un-

derway or to use it as a bargaining chip.

Any such move by the administration

would ignite intense bipartisan opposi-

tion in Congress.

“Our support for Taiwan through

arms transfers is not up for negotiation

with Beijing,” Representative Michael

McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on

the House Foreign Affairs Committee,

told The New York Times on Monday.

“I will support the sale of F-16s to Tai-

wan as soon as the State Department

notices them to our committee, which I

expect to happen soon,” Mr. McCaul

said.

Senator Robert Menendez of New

Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate

Foreign Relations Committee, said the

Trump administration “is possibly ob-

structing the sale of F-16 fighter jets to

Taiwan so the president can use them as

leverage in his failing trade war with

China.”

“Taiwan’s defense cannot be a bar-

gaining chip to be cashed in for a smile

from China’s dictatorship,” Mr. Menen-

dez said Monday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

and Robert Lighthizer, the United States

trade representative, arrived in Shang-

hai on Tuesday to meet with Chinese ne-

gotiators. President Trump and Presi-

dent Xi Jinping of China agreed to re-

start trade talks on June 29 in Osaka, Ja-

pan, on the sidelines of a meeting of the

Group of 20 advanced economies.

In Twitter posts on Tuesday, Mr.

Trump criticized China and said it

should enter a deal now. “We have all the

cards,” he said.

Lawmakers who oversee foreign pol-

icy in Congress had expected the State

Department to sign off on the fighter jet

sales by last week, before the House

went on recess. But Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo has not yet approved the

official notification to allow the sales to

move forward. Senators leave Washing-

ton on Friday, and Congress is not

scheduled to return until Sept. 9.

A Senate aide described hesitation by

administration officials to move forward

with the sales “in light of the ongoing ne-

gotiations with China.”

Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for the

trade representative, said Mr. Lighthi-

zer had not suggested delaying the arms

sales or offered it as a bargaining chip in

the trade talks.

The State Department declined to

comment on the proposed arms sales.

The Treasury Department and White

House National Security Council also

declined to comment.

The deal for the F-16s, which are made

by Lockheed Martin, would be the sec-

ond batch of arms sales to Taiwan by the

Trump administration this summer.

However, it is much larger and more

sensitive than the earlier sale.

On July 8, the State Department noti-

fied Congress that it was moving ahead

with a sale of 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks

and other weapons to Taiwan, a package

worth more than $2 billion. Unless Con-

gress raises objections within one

month of formal notification, the sale

will go through.

After Presidents Richard M. Nixon,

Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter de-

cided to normalize relations with China,

Congress passed the Taiwan Relations

Act of 1979 to set guidelines for nondip-

lomatic relations with Taiwan. The act

requires the United States “to provide

Taiwan with arms of a defensive charac-

ter.”

For years, Beijing has objected to the

sales. That has prompted the United

States to try to draw as little attention to

the arms purchases as possible by ap-

proving them in intermittent batches.

Taiwan has had a longstanding request

for new F-16s, which has provoked espe-

cially vehement objections from Beijing,

given that the jets could be used to bomb

mainland China.

Some Trump administration officials

have taken hard-line stands against

China based on national security con-

cerns. Others have argued that main-

taining stable economic ties with Beijing

is more important.

John R. Bolton, the White House na-

tional security adviser, has long been an

outspoken defender of Taiwan and a

proponent of arms sales.

In a January 2017 opinion article, Mr.

Bolton wrote that Mr. Trump should

play the “Taiwan card” to counter Chi-

na’s hegemonic moves in Asia. Mr.

Bolton even suggested that the United

States should restore diplomatic rela-

tions with Taiwan.

Mr. Pompeo has been less brazen on

Taiwan policy, and his priority is to stay

in step with Mr. Trump, but he has spo-

ken about competing with China to keep

it from spreading authoritarian ideas.

Economic advisers to Mr. Trump have

resisted tougher actions against China

to avoid jeopardizing a potential trade

deal, a goal that the president is eager to

reach before the 2020 presidential elec-

tion. The Treasury Department has ob-

jected to proposals to impose sanctions

on Chinese officials for the detention of

more than one million Muslims, accord-

ing to administration officials.

Mr. Trump takes a transactional view

of China. He started a trade war to push

a deal that would narrow the trade

deficit, but rarely if ever speaks of China

as an adversary or strategic threat. In

Osaka, Mr. Trump said he saw the

United States and China as “strategic

partners,” and he constantly praises Mr.

Xi.

The president has also suggested that

any national security concerns over

Huawei, the Chinese telecommunica-

tions equipment maker, could be

brushed aside if China enters a favor-

able trade deal with the United States.

“Trump does not see China as an ene-

my,” said Michael Pillsbury, a scholar of

the Chinese military at the Hudson In-

stitute who has informally advised the

White House. “In fact, he has shown re-

markable restraint when it comes to

China.”

Three congressional officials said the

F-16 sales were delayed after trade ad-

visers appealed to Mr. Trump. One of the

officials, who works for a senior Republi-

can lawmaker, said he expected Mr.

Bolton and perhaps Mr. Pompeo to press

Mr. Trump this week to approve the

sales, though Mr. Pompeo left for Thai-

land on Tuesday.

That official compared Mr. Trump’s

reluctance to embrace the sales to the

White House’s hesitation to impose

sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of

the Russian S-400 antiaircraft system.

Mr. Trump has shown an affinity for

strongman leaders, whether it is Mr. Xi

or President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of

Turkey or President Vladimir V. Putin of

Russia.

“Using Taiwan as a bargaining chip in

our economic relationship with China

plays right into Beijing’s hands and only

leaves Taiwan more vulnerable to Chi-

nese coercion,” said Kelly E. Magsamen,

the Pentagon’s top Asia-Pacific policy

official at the end of the Obama adminis-

tration. “It’s Taipei’s worst nightmare. It

means they could be on the table in big-

ger ways.”

Tensions between China and Taiwan

have been rising over the past month.

President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan,

seen as an adversary by Communist

Party leaders in Beijing, hosted a recep-

tion for United Nations officials on July

11 in New York while on a trip to visit Ca-

ribbean nations, and stopped in Col-

orado on her way home. On July 14, Bei-

jing announced that it would carry out

military exercises near the Taiwan

Strait.

White House is accused of delaying arms sales to Taiwan

WASHINGTON

Lawmakers are worried

that F-16 jet deal is being

used in China trade talks

BY EDWARD WONG

AND ERIC SCHMITT

Taiwanese soldiers taking part in a military exercise in May. The Taiwan government

wants to spend $8 billion to replace its aging F-16 jets with new models of the plane.

TYRONE SIU/REUTERS

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