BRISBANE - An Australian university student who has never visited China and has only a modest social media following would seem an unlikely target for the Chinese government.
Pavlou, a philosophy student, said he had also received death threats after one of China's envoys in Australia labelled him a"separatist". "It's very weird for a superpower to be focusing on one 21-year-old Aussie student, one Aussie bloke who fundamentally is pretty stupid and does a lot of dumb things," Pavlou told Agence France-Presse.
Those ties are now being investigated by several Australian authorities for fear the influx of Chinese cash might have jeopardised the national interest. After a closed-door hearing, Pavlou was suspended for two years, later reduced to the rest of 2020 on appeal.