Chinese ambassador to Australia’s speech disrupted by ‘Free Tibet’ protestors

A speech by the Chinese ambassador to Australia has been spectacularly disrupted by protestors objecting to his country’s occupation of Tibet.

In a trainwreck speech to the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology in Sydney, Xiao Qian found his opening remarks derailed four times after protestors stood up holding pieces of paper protesting China‘s role in Tibet. 

The first protestor, a well-dressed middle-aged man, was silent and bowed to the crowd as he was shuffled to the exit by security.

But two more female protestors yelled loudly as they drew attention to China’s ‘oppression’ of Tibetans while many in attendance approached them taking photos and video on their phones.

In all it’s believed there were about five or six protestors removed from the room. Some are believed to have also been protesting China’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s autonomy while other accused the superpower of committing genocide against minority Uyghurs.

Mr Xiao appeared shaken by the protests, stopping his speech as the protestors were moved from the venue.    

‘Well… I think I should continue. I think I should continue,’ he eventually said.

In a question-and-answer session following the ambassador’s short speech, moderator James Laurenceson briefly addressed the uproar. 

‘It is a shame our friends are not still with us because if they hung around I feel quite confident that after this question and answer session, they too would have agreed that this discussion we are going to have is not just a series of Dorothy Dix questions,’ Mr Laurenceson said.

One of the protestors was former University of Queensland student Drew Pavlou, a trenchant Australian critic of the Chinese regime.

‘Representatives of the Chinese dictatorship should not be accepted by polite society,’ he tweeted after the speech. 

‘They should not be treated with deference and respect – they represent a regime committing atrocious genocide and crimes against humanity. We will protest the Ambassador wherever he goes.’

In May Mr Pavlou was arrested for holding up a sign saying ‘f*** Xi Jinping’ during an anti-Communist Party rally at Eastwood in Sydney’s northwest.

He also stood as a Senate candidate at the last Federal election. 

The ambassador’s speech continued the thawing of relations between China and Australia, which substantially deteriorated after the Morrison government called for an inquiry into the Wuhan origins of the Covid-19 virus.

Mr Xiao said China seeks ‘friendship’ with Australia and envisages the relationship  as ‘back on the right track at an early date’. 

China has occupied Tibet since 1951 where it has been accused by opponents of its presence of conducting ‘cultural genocide’.

Ambassador Xiao is the 15th Chinese ambassador to Australia and only assumed his role based in Canberra in January this year.