The University of Sydney is investigating a Chinese-Australian tutor after he called Chinese international students “pigs”.
Wei Wu is a PhD student and the head tutor for a corporate finance course at the university’s business school. He was originally from China, but became a naturalised Australian in 2015.
The comments came from a since deleted weibo account named “@pekojima”. An Australian naturalisation certificate appeared on the account and its description matched with Wu’s personal details.
“A [Chinese] international student pig told me that, on behalf of the Australian-Chinese international student community, I have brought shame upon them all,” a post by @pekojima said.
“University of Sydney’s finance course is very hard – based on you international student pigs’ IQ, who knows how much money you need to spend to pay for all those ghost essay writers.”
In another post last November, he burned a Chinese passport in a toilet, although it was unknown whether the passport belonged to Wu.
The screenshots were even shared by a verified weibo account of the Chinese Communist Youth League.
The university has responded to the allegations, according to the university’s newspaper Honi Soit.
“The Business School and the University of Sydney note the allegations made against a tutor and view them extremely seriously,” said Professor Greg Whitwell, dean of the university’s business school.
“The Business School is currently investigating these allegations,” Whitwell said.
A petition distributed by the university’s School of Business students condemned Wu’s alleged “racist and humiliating comments”, saying that the “frequent, abusive and xenophobic remarks on social media” were “appalling, shameful and unacceptable”.
“As a liaison between students and the Business School, we will not tolerate this behaviour, and will seek to hold those responsible accountable for their actions,” the petition said.
“These comments have been extremely hurtful towards the International Student community and are in direct violation of the University of Sydney’s Code of Conduct for staff members.”
