1/8 Trending post on Chinese social media in Australia this week - Charles Darwin University Engineering prof accused of racism over wording in a COVID-19 themed homework assignment #auschina

2/8 Chinese students at CDU emailed a complaint

3/8 Students at the university also posted on Weibo, tagging the Chinese embassy in Australia and the People’s Daily and posted complaints on CDU’s Facebook page. A post was made about it by a top IR professor at Renmin University https://weibo.com/7264589101/JdUmxajy4?refer_flag=1001030103_&type=comment#_rnd1596427047309

4/8 The university allegedly emailed an apology to the students

5/8 On Friday morning, in response to a reporter from Sydney Today, the university’s FB page replied

6/8 Original WeChat account post noted that “As a university professor he used an assignment to express his discrimination and prejudice, using this as a pretext to mistakenly lead students to believe that COVID-19 ‘originated in China and China caused the world’s losses’”

7/8 “As the Sydney consulate said, the source of COVID-19 is a scientific issue and should be left to scientists and medical experts to study."

8/8 "Any words and deeds that ‘politicize’ the epidemic and ‘stigmatise’ China will only deeply prejudice, provoke hostility, and undermine international cooperation in epidemic prevention...Don’t damage our feelings while collecting tuition fees from international students”