A political activist and Queensland senate hopeful has snapped back after sparking fury at a Sydney protest where he held a sign that said ‘F**k Xi Jinping’.
Taking to a busy shopping strip in the northwest suburb of Eastwood – which has one of Sydney’s highest Chinese populations – the 20-year-old sparked an angry reaction from bystanders who called him a “motherf**ker” and “son of a b**ch”. Pavlou claims there was also an attempt to smash his photographer’s camera. They have since made a statement to the police in regards to the “assault”.
Speaking with 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Monday morning, Drew Pavlou defended his actions and said he was “intimidated” by bystanders and labelled them as “fascists”.
“How many times do you see signs at the climate rallies (that say f*** Sco Mo)?” said the senate candidate.
“No one gets attacked when they put up a sign like that, no one gets charged by police.”
Pavlou said that the Chinese pro-democracy students protesting with him were also called “race traitors” and hit with racial slurs like “rotten banana”. He also claims one of the bystanders said “F*** Australians”.
“I was basically intimidated. These guys got up in my face,” he said.
“These guys were fascists basically.”
Despite this, he admits that he’d slightly change his tactics, if he were to protest again.
“I wouldn’t have put a swear word on the sign if I had my time back,” he added.
More footage of violent Chinese ultra-nationalists assaulting me and an independent protest journalist because I held up a sign saying “Fuck Xi Jinping” in the middle of Sydney while campaigning with my party for the Australian elections. @Chriscoveries attacked from behind pic.twitter.com/UUh7bc8oW7
— Drew Pavlou For Senate (@DrewPavlou) April 30, 2022
source news.com.au
