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Australian Story: Mar 9

ABC profiles a Chinese journalist and comedian paying a high price for dissent.

Monday’s Australian Story profiles Vicky Xu, a Chinese-born journalist and comedian paying a high price for dissent

There are very few Chinese journalists in Australia who openly criticise their government and even fewer working simultaneously on the comedy circuit which might help explain the growing media profile of Chinese national Vicky Xu.

When the 25-year-old arrived in Australia in 2014 on a university gap year she was “a patriot”, loyal to her country’s communist government.

But then everything changed.

Ms Xu is now an outspoken critic and has found herself at the centre of an increasingly heated debate over the Australia-Chinese relationship.

‘I’m definitely considered provocative at times. The label anti-China has been put on me by certain people. I don’t see myself that way,’ she said.

Unrelenting in her pursuit of stories about the mass detention of the Uyghur community in China and other human rights issues, Ms Xu says her work has put her on the Chinese government’s radar to the point where she feels it is no longer safe to return home.

‘Vicky’s in a sensitive position. She’s exposed China to a lot of scrutiny at great personal cost’ says Damien Cave who employed Ms Xu at The New York Times’ Sydney bureau.

The personal cost of her work has also complicated family relationships.

‘My Dad has stopped speaking to me. I couldn’t help but feel that it’s my fault I am in this situation and I put my family in this situation, I’m gonna be guilty about this forever,’ says Ms Xu.

Now working as a researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Ms Xu was the lead author of an explosive report released this week which claims that Uyghurs are being forced into factories in around China to manufacture goods for brand names such as Apple, Adidas, Nike and BMW.

Producer: Jennifer Feller

8pm Monday on ABC.

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