Chinese Students in Australia Threatened By Beijing, Human Rights Watch Says

Sydney (AP) -- China’s government and its supporters have monitored, harassed and intimidated pro-democracy Chinese students living in Australia, and Australian universities have failed to protect the students' academic freedoms, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.

The fear caused by the intimidation — which includes classmates reporting the students’ activities to Chinese officials — has intensified in recent years, according to the report. Terrified of reprisals against their families in China, many Chinese students and academics in Australia now censor their behavior, despite being thousands of kilometers (miles) from Beijing.