People take part in the Stop Riots in Hong Kong rally in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 17, 2019. Around 3,000 people marched peacefully through the streets of Sydney on Saturday to call for an end to the violence which has gripped China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in recent weeks. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese students at University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia were irritated after an anti-China lecture held on campus spread rumors that China was infiltrating Australian universities.

The lecture themed "China's influence in Australian Universities," which falsely hyped China's alleged infiltration into Australian public education institutions and influencing of politicians, citing Confucius Institute as an example. 

One of the lecturers was Clive Hamilton, an Australian author famous for his anti-China stance. Hamilton's book was also on sale at the lecture. 

A few Chinese students were at the lecture, but they were laughed at and catcalled when they tried to express ideas that differed from the lecturers, a graduate student Haotian (pseudonym) who attended the event told the Global Times on Thursday.  

Another Chinese attendee, who claimed to have been living in Australia for 10 years, said that he felt bored and discontent due to the biased foreign media reports on China. He was booed and couldn't continue, according to videos recorded by another Chinese attendee. 

Most of the attendees have shown an obvious double-standard and violated freedom of speech which Western media boast about, Haotian told the Global Times. 

The lecture also spread rumors that UQ students faced physical violence and online death threats from Chinese students over the past few weeks after a demonstration in July..

Patriotic Chinese students confronted protesters on July 24 when the latter attacked China's policies in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Foreign media presented an inaccurate and biased view of the event by deleting interviews from patriotic Chinese students.  

Some organizers of the July-24 event were seen attending the lecture. A Hong Kong student, who claimed to be the leader of an August demonstration in Hong Kong, also attended the lecture.   

The lecture came after Geng Shuang, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, dismissed Wednesday the reports that "China has infiltrated Australia" as groundless with ulterior motives. Geng's remarks came after a report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation about that Australian government is setting up a special team to deal with Chinese intervention in its university education.