SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian university suspended a student activist for two years on Friday (May 29), in a move he claimed was designed to silence his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party’s influence at the institution.

The University of Queensland disciplinary board told Mr Drew Pavlou – a vocal critic of the Chinese government and supporter of the Hong Kong independence movement – he would be suspended for two years but did not release details of the decision.

Mr Pavlou said he was given no reason for the move but said it was to silence his protests and take away his senate seat on the institution’s elected governing body.

“This is a clear attempt to silence me for my political activism,” he said in a statement. “I never thought it would get to this point.”

Local media reported that Mr Pavlou’s disciplinary citing ran to more than 180 pages and included allegations incendiary social media posts, threatening behaviour, disrupting protests and using a pen at a campus shop and not paying for it.

He planned to appeal the decision and labelled it an attempt to protect the “dirty” university and Chinese Communist party business interests.

The university’s chancellor Peter Varghese said an out-of-session meeting of the senate would be called to discuss the suspension.

“There are aspects of the findings and the severity of the penalty which personally concern me,” Mr Varghese said.

Last year Mr Pavlou gained international attention when a protest he attended saw clashes between pro- and anti-Beijing students on the campus and led the consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Brisbane to label organisers as separatists.

More than 181,000 Chinese people are enrolled in Australian universities bringing more than US$6.8 billion (S$9.61 billion) into the economy each year.

The University of Queensland is also home to one of the several Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes in Australia.

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