Stronger Support Needed so Chinese-Australians Can Freely Criticise Beijing: Academic

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Nov 15, 2025 - 10:55 Updated: Nov 14, 2025 - 15:51
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Stronger Support Needed so Chinese-Australians Can Freely Criticise Beijing: Academic

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Australians, including politicians, have nothing to fear from speaking out against Beijing, according to the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, Professor James Laurenceson.

Speaking at the Brisbane Dialogues along with Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who spent almost three years in a Chinese prison when working as a business reporter for the state-run TV station CGTN.

She was arrested in 2020, accused of illegally providing state security secrets abroad, and was released only after sustained diplomatic protest by Australia.

Cheng has previously spoken of Chinese-Australians’ fear of Beijing, to the extent that prior to an event she was attending, she could not find an interpreter to translate for a speaker with anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sentiments.

The translator even offered to translate over the phone, but not in-person.

“It’s not right that the fear extends this far and this deep,” Lei said in response, during a launch of her book, “Cheng Lei, A Memoir of Freedom,” in June this year.

But Laurenceson says people should “speak openly about the importance of human rights” and “support an environment in Australia where people feel comfortable voicing their opinions, including those that are critical of Beijing.”

“As Lei said, there are some Australians, particularly those of Chinese ethnicity, who are fearful of being openly critical of Beijing. We’ve got to support them through anti-foreign interference legislation and enforcement so that they feel safer in expressing their views,” the professor told The Epoch Times.

But such freedom also needs to be extended to those who speak in support of the CCP regime, he points out.

“Self-censorship cuts in all directions. In other discussions I’ve had, other Chinese Australians have told me that they are reluctant to speak positively about Beijing because they fear being labelled a stooge, a ‘useful idiot’ or worse, a foreign agent or spy. This is also unacceptable in my view.”

Government Approach Must Be ‘Disciplined’

There is, however, a distinction to be made between ordinary citizens and government ministers, who have “a broader responsibility and so, in my view, do need to be disciplined in their rhetoric,” Laurenceson says.

“This absolutely does not mean ministers should refrain from criticising Beijing for actions that threaten Australian interests. But it should be done calmly and professionally, not needlessly antagonistically.”

He believes the current government generally strikes the right note when dealing with Beijing.

“For example, when the government was trying to secure Lei’s release, the government made clear it thought she was arbitrarily detained and didn’t receive a fair trial. But it didn’t seek to shout at every opportunity. Doing so wouldn’t have helped Lei. I think the outcome shows that the government handled Lei’s case competently.

“But there’s no rulebook for handling such cases, and some may feel the government was too passive. That’s not my view, but each situation is different, and the government must make a series of judgment calls. I think broadly the government handles human rights issues competently and consistently with Australian values and interests,” Laurenceson says.

Threats to CCP Critic

Cheng is not the only critic of the CCP to have encountered problems speaking out in Australia.
Canadian human rights lawyer and member of the Order of Canada, David Matas, who is a leading researcher into the CCP’s forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners told the Epoch Times there were numerous attempts to silence him and stop him showing his work to Australians.

In 2008, Matas was asked at a public forum, “Are you afraid of death? You are brutally interfering in our Party’s internal policies. Are you afraid of our revenge?” by a man Matas says was a CCP police official.

Then in 2010, The Epoch Times’ Chinese edition was set to host a panel discussion with Matas, but prior to the event, the newspaper’s office was the target of a drive-by shooting with an air rifle.

Over the years, several universities that had accepted bookings for the Nobel Peace Prize nominee to speak, but later cancelled with no explanation.

“[The CCP is] trying to leverage their [Chinese] diaspora communities … They also leverage the relationships with the home countries or threaten the relatives back in the home country, over which they have total control,” he said, suggesting that the Australian government hold an inquiry into “transnational repression.”

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