Chinese scholar Chen Hong insists he was no security risk despite being banned from Australia
- Chen teaches Australian culture at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, where he is director of the Australian Studies Centre
- He said he became critical of Australia after 2017, when Canberra began a ‘heartbreaking’ political debate about Chinese influence
A Chinese scholar banned from Australia on security grounds says he has become critical of Canberra in recent years but is no security risk, adding his biggest contribution to a WeChat group at the centre of a security investigation was usually an emoji.
One of the banned academics, Chen Hong, had drawn recent attention for criticising the Australian government in the Chinese newspaper The Global Times.
Chen said he became critical of Australia after 2017, when Canberra began a “heartbreaking” noisy political debate about Chinese influence.
“I don’t think Australia is a country that should be clamping down on voices,” Chen said. “In my classroom my students all know that I am an ‘Australianist’.”
Chen teaches Australian culture at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, where he is director of the Australian Studies Centre.
Chen first visited Australia as a 24-year-old at the personal invitation of former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam.