In 2016 Bob Carr unloaded on then treasurer Scott Morrison for collapsing in the face of “the witches’ sabbath of xenophobia and economic nationalism stirred up in the recent federal election”.
So, as an expert in intellectual property, Sydney University’s vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, would know he wasn’t offering a novel idea when he gave an interview to this newspaper on Saturday to address the growing debate over Chinese Communist Party influence on his campus and in the community. This has brought a series of wicked dilemmas, some of which would be bad ideas when dealing with any large group of foreign nationals, and others which arise from the fact that China is a deeply intolerant, easily offended and increasingly aggressive single-party state.That universities have compromised academic standards and are graduating students who can’t read, write or speak English to a high school level in order to stuff as many as possible on the books.
What then of the Confucius Institute that’s overseen by a Chinese government agency on the Sydney University campus? The NSW government has just scrapped the program in state schools. What will Spence do?