Australia, China and human rights – is a step change needed?
The Australian government has been increasingly outspoken about its concerns via public statements from senior ministers and in multilateral fora. But is this enough?
In recent years, actions taken by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) affecting the rights of both its own citizenry and foreign nationals have heightened international concerns, including in Australia.
Some examples include the PRC’s crackdown on its Turkic Muslim minority in the northwest province of Xinjiang; intimidation tactics employed in the face of the deepening political crisis in Hong Kong and government support for counter-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and overseas; and the months-long detentions and vague charges levelled at Australian citizen Yang Hengjun and Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, all the while without providing them access to lawyers or families.
The Australian government has been increasingly outspoken about its concerns via public statements from senior ministers and in multilateral fora. But is this enough?
The Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI) welcomes Professor Jocelyn Chey AM, Adjunct Professor at the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University and former Australian Consul General to Hong Kong; and Dr Michael Clarke, Associate Professor at the National Security College at the Australian National University to discuss the efficacy of Australia’s responses to date and explore whether a step change is needed.
The panel will be moderated by UTS:ACRI Acting Director Professor James Laurenceson.
