New Australian Cyber Security Laws to Protect Students From Beijing Spying
Chinese students at Australian universities could soon be protected from Beijing spying under new cyber security laws.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security said university leaders were not doing enough to protect students who fear for their families while under pressure from China.
At the hearing on Friday, committee chair Sen. James Paterson said universities had a legal duty to care for the welfare of students and a moral responsibility to uphold academic freedoms.
“If they’re being spied upon by their fellow students or others, and you’re not taking steps to protect them from it, then you’re letting them down,” he said.
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Australian University Rejects Chinese-Funded Research Worth Millions for National Interest
Several research projects and joint collaborations worth millions of dollars have been rejected by Adelaide University because of high-risk links to Beijing.
In its submission to a national inquiry into security risks affecting higher education last month, the university revealed it rejected projects on the basis of national interest or university reputation.
“As a leading Australian university in the fields of defence and cybersecurity, the University of Adelaide takes seriously its responsibilities towards foreign interference,” a spokesman told The Epoch Times.
“Examples provided to the Parliamentary committee help to illustrate the quality of the University’s due diligence and are the direct result of improved practices and oversight in relation to these issues.”
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at 12:15 am on March 12, 2021 | 30 comments
Last year, the former vice-chancellor of Macquarie University, Professor Steven Schwartz, admitted that many international students only study in Australia to gain working rights and permanent residency:
[Professor Schwartz] said foreign students flock to courses likely to lead to jobs and permanent residency…
“Permanent residency is one of the main motivations to study in Australia’…
“If suddenly permanent residency was given to people who study poetry, it’s likely they’d all be doing poetry.”
Over recent months we have witnessed the edu-migration industry lobby the federal government to give permanent residency to students in order to increase Australia’s attractiveness as a study destination (see here and here).