Almost a dozen Hongkongers studying or working in Australia and Canada told This Week in Asia they had experienced a growing atmosphere of fear around discussions of Hong Kong and other subjects deemed sensitive by Beijing due to the vitriolic response of some mainland Chinese. Campus clashes and other incidents have occurred recently in cities including Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia, and Vancouver and Montreal in Canada.
In Vancouver, police escorted worshippers out of a prayer meeting for Hong Kong last Sunday after flag-waving mainlanders surrounded the church in what one organiser described as an attempt at “bullying” and “intimidation”.The incidents have almost always been initiated by a small number of ultra-nationalistic pro-Beijing Chinese, often students, who oppose demonstrations supporting Hong Kong’s anti-government protests, Taiwan independence or calling for investigations into Uygur detentions in China’s westernmost province Xinjiang.
