On March 29,they published an article exposing the links between two Sydney professors and Chinese government-sponsored technology transfer programs. But a few hours later,the article was pulled off the newspaper’s website. Luckily,the article at the centre of this controversy can still be readonline. Hurrah for the internet.
China,universities,suppression of free speech:cue the conspiracy theories. But there seems no reason to doubt the sincerity of the newspaper’s student editors,who deny coming under any outside pressure to retract the article. Instead,they say they were concerned about “escalating Sinophobia and racism” and felt a “duty as student journalists to actively combat Western imperialist and xenophobic biases presented in mainstream media”.
Thus the Minister’s dig at “left activists”.
In the wake of last month’s anti-Asian mass shooting in Atlanta,it’s not surprising that the newspaper might be extra-sensitive to accusations of Sinophobia.
It’s also no surprise that well-meaning students might overreact to criticisms of racism. Even ministers for education and youth have been known to overreact from time to time. But there was nothing in theHoni Soit report that was likely to incite violence,or to endorse “imperialist and xenophobic biases”.
The students seem to have unknowingly bought into Chinese propaganda narratives that appealed to their better selves.
The article only expanded on connections that had already been widely reported in the aforementioned mainstream media,and even debated in Parliament. The paper had no substantive reason to pull their report. Emotions,however,are another matter.