Historian of China and Inner Asia at @Sydney_Uni. Vice-President (Academic) of the #USyd @NTEUNSW. Author of Uyghur Nation (2016), China Panic (2021).
Apr 4 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Quite some shenanigans at USyd regarding the new Group of 8 definition of antisemitism. Many solid critiques have been made of this, most recently by @jumanabayeh, and not surprisingly staff have strong reservations. What to do? overland.org.au/2025/03/silenc…
The university took the definition to Academic Board last month, proposing to include the definition alongside other definitions in the appendix to its anti-racism statement. But this "proposal" wasn't actually put as a proposal to Academic Board, and no vote occurred.
Oct 21, 2021 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Just got through @markwillacy’s book. To coincide with Alan Tudge’s speech today, I’m going to just post a couple of scenes from Australia’s proud recent history of standing up for freedom and liberal values.
Blooding - the execution of prisoners as a rite of passage - wasn’t just carried out in Afghanistan. Preparing people to do it was part of training in Australia.
Sep 28, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Some thoughts on recent stoushes, and my own position, which evidently confuses people.
I’m sure the @ASPI_ICPC report is mostly accurate. It’s an impressive piece of work. But the empirical debate is substituting for a political debate, and no amount of data will shift that.
Camp skepticism or denialism, in its various forms, is really not about empirical questions. It reflects skepticism towards the actors and organisations making the running on China issues in the West. We're better off just facing up to that and talking about the politics.
Sep 26, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Interesting side note to @BackgroundBrief's report on the Falun Gong and Oz media a while back. Last year the Department of Human Services had a partnership with FLG's Sound of Hope 希望之声, which resulted in the show "Engage Australia" 走入澳洲. ozvoice.org/radio-programs…
A Youtube series with the same title was also made. It began with videos about life in Australia - the kind of stuff that the Department presumably had in mind. Then, in July, the "Engage Australia" Youtube channel changed its name to "Voices" 真觀點. youtube.com/channel/UCAwVp…
Sep 8, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Bit more on this still vague story here. Raid said to have occurred on 26/6, on 4 PRC journos from 3 media orgs, relating to the Foreign Interference Transparency Scheme, & came up with nothing. Date would place it in advance of the Cheng Lei detention. chinanews.com/gn/2020/09-08/…
June 26 was the day after the raid on Moselmane. Possibly related?
Aug 4, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Does anyone have a link to the original offending article in Chinese? The author's name "Cho Yao Lu" comes from the Russian articles cited here, not sure what his actual name is.
Ok, think I found it. The Russian title is Таджикистан инициировал передачу Китаю его земель и потерянные горы Памира были возвращены истинному хозяину, which seems to be this article: 塔吉克斯坦主动归还中国领土，丢失的帕米尔高原最终回归
May 15, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I'm wary of using border controls as an instrument to advance human rights. Giving bureaucrats or a minister powers to deny entry on human rights grounds can legitimise the use of discretionary power to restrict entry more generally, and might backfire on progressives.
The parochialism surrounding Magnitsky also makes me skeptical. Those promoting it make no effort to sound impartial - it's about joining a "club" of Western allies. The idea that there might be people responsible for human rights abuses in Western countries just isn't discussed.
May 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Been some good stories on the Falungong media empire in the US by @EliClifton et al. Question that still needs exploring in Oz is whether or not Vision Times is part of that empire. I know they deny it, but stuff like this... trove.nla.gov.au/work/212691312…
It's not an insignificant question, now that a VT editor sits on the advisory board of the govt's Foundation for Australia China Relations. Of course, DFAT can appoint anyone they like, but there's a fairly big difference between "independent community newspaper" and FLG media.
Feb 22, 2020 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
There's a big push on to militarise the Top End and beef up Australia's capacity to support the US in a war on China. First, this announcement: theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence…
Peter Jennings from @ASPI_org follows up with an op-ed arguing that Australia needs "a weapon that can push the hitting power and deterrent effect of the Australian Defence Force well north of the Indonesian archipelago." theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/letti…
Jan 7, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
This article is good but I think this is worth discussing: "those who seek to alter China’s treatment of its Uyghur citizens may be more effective if they approach that behavior as grounded in counter-terrorism policy, rather than framing objections on human rights grounds."
There’s nothing stopping us combining these two lines of analysis. Counter-terrorism policy has been disastrous for human rights everywhere. But to say that, you have to have a critique of the war on terror globally and the US’s leading role in it.
Dec 19, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Can someone explain something? The new Foreign Interference Transparency Scheme doesn't actually define "foreign." So a "foreign political organisation" can be "a foreign organisation that exists primarily to pursue political objectives." Ok, but what's a foreign organisation?
The FITS resources adds: "An organisation is a foreign political organisation if its primary purpose is to pursue the political objectives associated with governing a foreign country." Which could be read to mean any organisation concerned with the policies of a foreign country.
Oct 14, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
I have a responsibility to the people I teach at #Usyd. If you’re going to run a story on the “infiltration” of my university and include a long segment on international students, you’re inviting people to think of those students as “infiltrators.” That’s extremely dangerous.
I’m sick of having to raise these things, but this just strikes me as such an obvious ethical issue. Did no one at @4corners think twice about it?
Oct 14, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Sorry if I caused any confusion – this isn’t about China. It’s about a time I came out in support of the Palestinians and their call for a boycott of Israeli institutions. It’s not my only story about people trying to put pressure on my job for this. My colleagues have others.
Thanks to the journos who got in touch. If you’re still interested, this particular story's a bit old now, but I’d be happy to talk about ongoing efforts to silence pro-Palestine speech on campus. Israel says publicly that it wants to step up this campaign worldwide.
Oct 13, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
With this next @4corners on Chinese influence on our universities coming up, I feel it’s time I got a story off my chest. I’ve hesitated to go public about it until now.
A couple of years ago, I made some comments to an Australian newspaper about my support for a particular ethnic group who were suffering severe repression.
Jul 21, 2019 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
New White Paper discussed in that last RT is here. As usual, it has the very light sounding but actually very weighty "ruogan wenti" ("certain questions") in the title. I think @Junmai1103's article picked up the most noteworthy stuff in it. xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-…@Junmai1103 There's a new bit of historical wordplay going on here to prove that Xinjiang has always been part of China. New to me at least. It starts here: 宋代著名历史文献《突厥语大词典》将当时中国分为上秦、中秦和下秦3部分，上秦为北宋，中秦是辽朝，下秦为喀什噶尔一带，三位一体为完整的秦。
Jul 16, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Now that we've belatedly realised that these countries aren't exactly paragons of human rights, wouldn't it be time to end our "counter-terrorism" collaborations with them? Are any of the think-tanks and security hawks who've taken a recent interest in Xinjiang calling for this?
If I had time I'd go down the list, but here's a good story about the UAE, among the West's closest "counter-terrorism" allies in the Gulf. "Project Raven" recruited NSA spies to help in its crackdown on dissent, using very similar techniques to China. reuters.com/investigates/s…
May 18, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Voter in Campsie today: 哪一个党最排华 (Which party is the most anti-Chinese)? Tough question given the offerings, but I went for UAP in the end. Was also thinking about Fred Nile, but they had some Chinese volunteers at the booth.
I might've made a mistake though. After the Chinese volunteers for Fred Nile had left, I heard their Anglo volunteer on the phone complaining about how under a Shorten government "the Chinese are going to take over."
May 13, 2019 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Look out Chinese Australians. Unless you cut all ties with the PRC, and shun all community groups in any way associated with it, the loyalty police are coming for you. theage.com.au/federal-electi…
No, no such suggestion at all. Article ends on this quote: “if there are questions about the allegiance of MPs, then it needs to be raised.” But no, no one’s suggesting anything...
Jan 11, 2019 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This online catalogue of Russian museum items is pretty amazing, thanks @athenogenes for posting. I'll link to a few of the more interesting photos I've just come across goskatalog.ru/portal/#/
Photograph of N. N. Karazin's watercolour of meeting between a Cossack ataman and the Ili Military-Governor in 1771 (not an event I'm familiar with) goskatalog.ru/portal/#/colle…
Nov 12, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Went along to the launch of this tonight. Read it - this stuff needs debunking, and @j_laurenceson's done a good job. But left feeling that so much of this debate is proxy for the deeper issue. This is all fairly basic I know, but it's getting lost. australiachinarelations.org/content/do-cla…
Australia’s telling the US that we desperately want them to stay top dog in Asia, but we’re sending them ambiguous signals about how far we’re willing to follow them into confrontation with China.
Aug 7, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Late to this, but I’ll engage since it seems to be directed at me. It's flattering to think that the question of how people like me articulate the Xinjiang issue with the rest of our politics was a key question in achieving justice in XJ. It’s obviously not, but anyway.
Let me correct a misrepresentation. I don’t think you need to bring up Australia’s crimes every time you discuss Xinjiang. Watch our forum at ANU. You’ll only find condemnation. There’s no “yes, but Australia also…”
