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Responding to the initial blowback,the university added a second tweet saying the"opinions expressed by our academics do not always represent the views of UNSW". The tweet said the university had a"long and valued relationship with Greater China"and provided a welcome and inclusive environment.
Both the university's posts were deleted by Saturday.
A university spokeswoman said the posts were"not in line with our policies – and the views of an academic were being misconstrued as representing the university".
Liberal MP Tim Wilson accused UNSW of cowardice and said universities needed to build a sense of resilience against foreign interference.
"If the university isn't prepared to stand up on such basic tests of intellectual diversity against something as straightforward as human rights violations abroad then it paints a very worrying picture to me,"the former Human Rights Commissioner said.
"It just seems to me to be a form of cowardice to have pulled down the article."
Labor senator Tony Sheldon said when respected voices such as Ms Pearson and Human Rights Watch were being censored"we have a big problem".
Liberal MP Dave Sharma,a former Australian ambassador,accused the university of self-censorship."UNSW seems to have acted in response to an orchestrated campaign of online intimidation,when such freedoms should be non-negotiable,"he said.
It is the second time in a week that UNSW has distanced itself from the views of its academics after economist Gigi Foster was criticised for advocating for relaxed coronavirus lockdown restrictions in Australia.
On Saturday evening,state-run nationalist newspaperThe Global Times posted an article saying the University of NSW had"outraged"and shamed Chinese students,who were demanding an apology and removal of the article.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Fergus Ryan said once an issue was picked up by Chinese state media it invited a much bigger cohort to jump on the bandwagon beyond the student community.
"In many of those messages the people who are complaining are saying point blank UNSW have done the wrong thing and we are going to push for Chinese students to pull out of your uni,"he said."It is that economic threat that the university is afraid of."
More than 16,000 Chinese students make up a quarter of UNSW's student body.
Mr Ryan said,while students should be able to campaign on a range of issues they believe in,the university should not so easily accede to the demands of the campaign.
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"They claim to stand up for freedom of speech but by doing this they are completely trashing that reputation,"he said.
Ms Pearson said she was seeking clarification from UNSW on what had happened and that advocating for the human rights of Hongkongers should not be controversial.
"I hope UNSW will reaffirm its protection of academic freedom and make it clear that academic freedom does not mean caving to censorship demands by some people over views they disagree with,"she said on Monday.
In the article,Ms Pearson had called for the United Nations to establish a special envoy to monitor the human rights situation in Hong Kong as the Chinese government cracks down on dissent and winds back the city's legal autonomy.
Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao,a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party,called the episode an"unacceptable disgrace".