SNA (London) — Drew Pavlou, an undergraduate at the University of Queensland (UQ), and an outspoken anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) political activist, has been threatened with expulsion in a move an independent observer said was a “personal vendetta by UQ against one of their students,” with Pavlou deeming it “political intimidation.”

The 20-year-old first announced the possible expulsion on Twitter several days ago, penning that UQ “will be considering my expulsion on April 27 before a secret hearing due to my posts criticizing the university’s links to the CCP and supporting Hong Kong.”

He also said he was emailed a “confidential booklet” by the university, detailing 186 pages of allegations against him, which his included satirical comments in online forums, a Facebook post which saw him pose in a bright-yellow hazmat suit and holding a sign which read “Covid-19 Biohazard Condemned” outside the university’s Confucius Institute, and not paying for a pen at a campus art shop.

One of the more serious allegations involves his public critiques of Peter Høj, the vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland. Høj is also a senior consultant to Hanban, a quasi-CCP organization which oversees Confucius Institutes, essentially centers which run classes promoting Chinese language and culture, across the world. Høj was presented with the “2015 Outstanding Individual of the Year Award” by Hanban. Pavlou also started an online petition calling for Høj to be fired from his position, and has issued many public calls for him to resign due to “inappropriate ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”

In Pavlou’s time as a student representative on both the UQ Senate, the main governing body of the university, and on the UQ Union, he has been one of the more controversial figures, relentlessly pushing the cause of Hongkongers against the Chinese government, passing motions in the Union for the University to “stand in solidarity” with Hongkongers in “their struggle for freedom from the imperialists in Beijing,” and to rename the UQU Conference Center after the human rights activist, Nobel Prize Laureate and fellow anti-CCP demonstrator, Liu Xiaobo.

Pavlou was also one of the main organizers of Hong Kong solidarity rallies at the university last summer, attracting the wrath of Chinese government supporters. Mainland Chinese students stormed onto the scene of a sit-in, physically assaulting demonstrators, including Pavlou. They also tore down a Lennon Wall, a colorful collage filled with pro-democracy messages and slogans, at the campus, replacing it with a chilling poster featuring an image of Drew Pavlou and the threat, “don’t insult China.”

Demonstrators were doxxed online by mainland Chinese netizens, and Xu Jie, the Chinese Consul-General in Brisbane, put out a statement backing the so-called “patriotic behavior”of the mainland Chinese students, calling Pavlou and his fellow activists “separatists,” a charge punishable by death in China. Incidentally, Xu remains an adjunct professor of culture and language at UQ to this day.

Not only did the university fail to support its own students through the saga, which led to Pavlou being so concerned for his own safety that he launched a court case to push for a ruling similar to a restraining order for Xu, they also discouraged students from holding the rallies, forcing them to relocate their protest to quieter areas of campus and emphasizing that they would be liable for unruly behavior. To add insult to injury, the university is now considering expelling one of its own students, apparently to appease the Chinese government.

Pavlou was defiant in an interview with Chris Smith of Sky News, declaring that on April 27, when the secret hearing is scheduled, he is “going to go there [and] fight his case,” clearly delineating that he believes the move was “not impartial” and “politically motivated.” He demanded of the university: “How many students have a pottymouth? How many students go around swearing? How many students get into biffs with each other? They don’t get 186 pages-worth of allegations sent to them in the mail!”

Meanwhile, the University of Queensland Union, the student’s representative body, whose ostensible purpose is to “support and advocate for students,” said they would not take a side in the dispute, because the Union does not “publicly comment” on ongoing disciplinary proceedings against individual students, which they say are “highly confidential,” despite the fact that many of the allegations have now been reported by national media.

Additionally, Olivia Brumm, described by Pavlou as an “independent observer,” who is the president of the Queensland University of Technology’s union, opined that the consideration was a “personal vendetta by UQ against one of their students” on Facebook. Added Brumm, the allegations were “absurdly trivial…. the mental gymnastics the university had to do to try and justify them was borderline hysterical.” She said that she believed the university was hypocritical, only being concerned with the principles of freedom of speech and freedom of expression as long as it aligned with their special interests.

So far the public appears to be very supportive of Pavlou. A petition to “force the University to drop charges against Drew immediately” has already accumulated more than 12,000 signatures. “Hong Kong World City,” an influential pro-HK democracy Twitter account with almost 50,000 followers, tweeted a link to the petition and started a hashtag, SaveDrew. The account also invoked a movement that was trending on Twitter last weekend, the #MilkTeaAlliance, which brought together Thais, Hongkongers, and Taiwanese in their grievances against the Chinese government. Several Australian politicians, whilst not coming out in full support of Pavlou and his actions, have at least expressed grave concern about not only the consideration itself but the implications it has for free speech.

Pavlou’s concerns about UQ’s ties with the Chinese government are at the very least somewhat credible. Aside from the concerns with Peter Høj’s ties to Hanban, UQ has greatly benefited in financial terms from a steady stream of mainland Chinese students, with almost 12,000 attending the university in the last five years. Many have already raised concerns about Confucius Institutes themselves and the way in which they push the CCP’s political agenda; and the University of Queensland is one of four Confucius Institutes (there are thirteen across Australia) that “must accept” Chinese government authority over the programs taught. An introductory course on China at the university was also bankrolled at the institute, which is certainly outside of the norm.

Pavlou explained on Twitter that the fire that fuels his passionate activism on Hong Kong and China in general is because he has a friend from Xinjiang, writing that he “will never forget my Uyghur mate’s eyes as he recounted to me what it’s like having family members in concentration camps… I knew I would commit my life from that point on to the fight.” No matter the outcome of the university’s decision in the secret hearing on April 27, or the court case against Xu Jie three days prior to that hearing, Pavlou indicates that he will not give up.

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