Latest news with #DrewPavlou
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Calls louden for drivers of fake 'Chinese police cars' to be DEPORTED
An outspoken protester against the Chinese Government has unleashed on the driver of a fake Chinese police vehicle allegedly carrying firearms through Sydney. Police spotted a Mercedes S-Class in Strathfield, in the city's inner west, about 2.50pm on Friday bearing a police insignia on the doors and bonnet, the word 'police' in Mandarin and the misspelt word 'poilce' in English. The 21-year-old driver allegedly presented a forged document to officers, claiming the vehicle was being used to transport Chinese consulate officials. Officers searched the car and allegedly discovered a box containing 48 live rounds of ammunition in the boot. The driver allegedly told officers the boot was the 'best place' to store the ammunition and that he had a valid firearms licence and two guns at home. He was charged with multiple offences, including using false documents to influence exercise of public duty. The alleged incident has drawn the ire of social media commentator Drew Pavlou, 26, who slammed the driver for his 'lack of respect'. 'It's just so unbelievably disrespectful to Australia as a country, and to all Australians,' the anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) activist told Daily Mail Australia. 'I think it shows the lack of respect that supporters of the Chinese government have towards Australia. 'They come to Australia - people who openly support the Chinese government - (and) they think so little of Australia and Australians, they think that they are a law unto themselves. 'They act as though we already are basically just a vassal state or a puppet state, and they don't have to show any respect for our laws, our police, our country.' Mr Pavlou, who is a law graduate from the University of Queensland, has used his social media following to spread his opposition to the Chinese Communist Party. While running for the Queensland Senate in 2022 under his own party 'Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance', he dressed as a Chinese Red Guard during a protest. The action by Pavlou was to highlight Liberal MP Gladys Liu's former connections with Chinese Communist Party-linked groups. He was also ordered to pay a $3,100 penalty by the Brisbane Magistrates Court in October 2023 for unlawfully displaying an advert outside the Chinese consulate which referenced the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. 'Anybody who expresses open support for (the CCP) in Australia, they have to leave. That's the answer,' Pavlou said. 'People who do things like this, where they where they put Chinese police car insignia on their cars - they have to be deported. They can't be in Australia.' The driver of the Mercedes S-class, who was identified by The Daily Telegraph as Kunlang Li, fronted Burwood Court on Tuesday. He faces multiple charges including displaying emergency services organisation insignia, driving a motor vehicle with unlawful police insignia, and using false documents to influence exercise of public duty. He was charged with providing information known to be false or misleading, possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm, and not displaying P plates. During his court appearance, Magistrate Jeff Tunks asked Li via his interpreter to enter a plea. But after being asked how he would plead to the charge of driving a motor vehicle with unlawful police insignia and a pause, Li's interpreter told the court he needed more time to seek legal advice. The court was adjourned to August 11 and Li's bail continued. This is not the first instance of alleged 'Chinese police' cars spotted on Australian streets. In April 2023, at least two 'Chinese police vehicles' were spotted less than a week apart with a sedan seen in Melbourne and a Jeep found in NSW. The Jeep, which also sported the logo from the toy and movie franchise Transformers, had a Chinese police crest and Mandarin characters almost identical to a Nissan Maxima spotted in Melbourne a few days earlier.
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Awkward moment political party backing a pro-squatter candidate gets a brutal taste of its own medicine
Activist Drew Pavlou has infuriated a minor political party, after filming himself pretending to be homeless inside the Victorian Socialists headquarters. Pavlou arrived uninvited at the party's Melbourne office on Tuesday, camera rolling, and claimed he was there to 'squat', echoing a stance by a party's candidate. 'Hello guys, I'm at the Victorian Socialists Office,' he announces in the video. 'They actually support squatting, they support people getting inside buildings and squatting. So I thought I would squat inside the Victorian Socialists HQ.' He then amps up the performance, lying down on the floor and wrapping himself in a sleeping bag. 'I'm homeless and I'm a meth addict and I haven't been able to get housing due to the capitalist system, so I thought I would just crash here for a few nights.' A visibly uncomfortable staff member calmly asks him to stop filming and leave, which he does, just under a minute after arriving, as soon as his cameraman lowers the camera. The stunt follows comments made by Victorian Socialists Senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb, also known online as Purplepingers, who urged people in 2024 to squat in vacant properties. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Drew Pavlou (@drewpavlou) One of his posts was linked to a high-profile incident in April 2025, when a Melbourne woman's home was broken into after the address was shared online. The squatters changed the locks, sold her late father's possessions, and left her with a $70,000 repair bill, a cost her insurer refused to cover. At the time, Pavlou criticised van den Lamb, calling him 'unhinged.' After the stunt, Pavlou posted to social media slamming the Victorian Socialists as hypocrites. 'The Victorian Socialists officially support breaking into homes and squatting so I thought I would take a sleeping bag and pillow and try sleep in their front office for a few nights,' Pavlou wrote. 'They threatened to call the police on me as an unhoused neurodivergent POC. Zero solidarity.' The Victorian Socialists fired back on Wednesday with a scathing statement, accusing Pavlou of exploiting the issue of homelessness for clicks. 'Yesterday we were paid a visit by right-wing social media 'influencer' Drew Pavlou who was cosplaying homelessness in order to generate engagement for his social media pages,' the party said. 'He was asked to leave by one of our young volunteers (no-one threatened to call the police on him as he claimed in his posts about the stunt) and he did so as soon as his cameraman was no longer able to film him, about one minute in total.' They also used the opportunity to distance themselves from the stunt, reminding supporters they take the issue seriously. 'As a party, we take the issue of homelessness very seriously, and have developed a policy plan that would, if implemented, mean people in actual housing emergencies have a chance of finding secure shelter.' Victorian Socialists also said they didn't have a party policy on squatting, but did 'oppose perfectly good housing being left empty long-term without a good reason' 'One of our policies is to seize those empty for 12 months or more for use as public housing,' they wrote. Pavlou hit back on social media, saying he was not politically right wing. 'I am not a right wing social media influencer, I am a social democrat philosopher and intellectual. Read some theory and get back to me you infantile leftists,' he wrote. Victorian Socialists supporters criticised Pavlou for his acts. 'This is behaviour I would expect from a toddler' someone wrote on social media. 'He inadvertently made a statement about what it's like to sleep rough,' said another. Pavlou's followers meanwhile backed his protest. 'Oh so suddenly private property is a thing?? Good on you Drew,' said one follower. 'This is awesome. You forgot their main philosophy which is they only care about things if it doesn't affect them personally. They are only generous with other people's money and property, not their own.' wrote another. Pavlou became known in 2019, after a protest against the Chinese Communist Party saw him suspended from the University of Queensland. He has since remained an outspoken critic of the Chinese and Russian Governments, and like Van Den Lamb, unsuccessfully ran for the Australian Senate in 2022.
News.com.au
22-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Mystery behind fake cop cars after another man is allegedly caught impersonating Chinese police
Fake 'Chinese police' cars have continued appearing in Aussie cities in recent years, leaving locals confused as to what's going on. The phenomenon has sparked fears of foreign interference and an attempt by the Chinese government to exert influence over members of the Chinese Australian community. But it remains unclear if the owners of the vehicles are part of a co-ordinated effort, or simply overeager supporters of Chinese authorities. 'No one can link it to the actual (Chinese) state, but it's certainly an act that intimidates the Chinese diaspora in Australia,' Drew Pavlou, a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), told 'It intimidates Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese - people who have moved to Australia to escape the Chinese regime. 'It's not fair to Australians as well, because it makes a mockery of our police and our legal system.' Shadow minister for home affairs Andrew Hastie said: 'Impersonating a police officer is a serious offence in and of itself, but it would be even more concerning if this tactic was being used as a tool of transnational repression to intimidate the Chinese diaspora in Australia.' 'ASIO has warned us that espionage and foreign interference are already at extreme levels, and it is no secret that the Chinese Government is the primary perpetrator,' Mr Hastie told 'There is no room for complacency in addressing these threats.' A car bearing fake Chinese police decals appeared in Melbourne in 2023, and two others were spotted in Adelaide and Perth amid pro-Hong Kong democracy protests in 2019. In response to the 2023 Melbourne incident, Benjamin Herscovitch, an expert on Australia-China relations, said the decals on the cars were so obvious that they were highly unlikely to be state-sanctioned. The cars would prove a 'huge liability' for Beijing, Mr Herscovitch told SBS News. 'From the point of view of the Chinese government, the benefits that you would get from having a car like this driving around the streets of Melbourne, are not big enough to justify the diplomatic kerfuffle and drama for the Chinese government that would result if something like this was traced back to the Chinese government.' Do you know more? Email Suburban Sydney charges In the latest incident, police arrested 21-year-old Kunlang Li at Strathfield, in Sydney's inner west, on Friday after he was caught allegedly driving a car bearing Chinese police insignia. Photos of the black Mercedes S-Class appeared to show the Mandarin characters for 'police' emblazoned on the bonnet, while the English translation was misspelt as 'poilce'. NSW Police also allegedly discovered firearms and ammunition in the car, and it was claimed Li produced a fake document claiming the car's purpose was to transport Chinese consulate officials. Li, who holds an active firearms licence, allegedly told police he believed the boot of the car was 'the best place to store his ammunition'. Officers seized the bullets along with other items suspected of being used to impersonate police. They later searched Li's Baulkham Hills home and also seized two gel blaster firearms. There is no suggestion that Li has any involvement with or connection to the Chinese state or Communist Party. Li was charged with multiple offences, including use display emergency services organisation insignia and drive motor vehicle with unlawful police insignia. He appeared in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday and did not enter a plea. He will remain on bail until his next court appearance on August 11. In 2022, a report by NGO Safeguard Defenders found that two secret Chinese 'police service stations' had been set up in Australia, including one in Sydney.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Aussie influencer on front lines of Ukraine conflict: 'It was terrifying'
An Australian activist has recounted the harrowing scenes still unfolding on the front lines of Russia's brutal assault on Ukraine, as US President Donald Trump unwinds decades of American policy by taking a notably softened stance towards the Kremlin's aggression. A potential ceasefire and deal to end the war looms, but heavy bombing continues. Aussie law student Drew Pavlou, 25, visited Ukraine for about 10 days this month, at times "embedded with the Ukrainian marines", to witness up close the atrocities of Russia's war. Drew, a well known provocateur and influencer who has railed against foes of free speech ranging from the University of Queensland to the Chinese government, was invited to the war zone by Rob Potter, the founder of cyber warfare company Cyber Activities Group, which was conducting drone warfare research. "We met with the head of Ukraine's drone program," Drew told Yahoo News Australia. "They flew over the battlefield for us." Drew, who has been outspoken on the issue of Ukraine's defence, said Rob invited him because he had a spare seat and "I have a lot of Twitter followers". While visiting shell-shocked parts of the country — at one point coming within about a kilometre of the Russian position — he filmed hours of footage and has been uploading videos to YouTube and other social media platforms showing the daily devastation in eastern Ukraine at the hands of Vladimir Putin. Whether it's war-zone tourism, new media or something else, Drew says he just wants to get the grim reality of the situation out there. "There's a lot of Russian propaganda online," he said. "I tried to do the independent journalist thing and record the conditions from a humanitarian point of view. "I talked to people who personally had family members who were tortured using electric shocks and things like that," he told Yahoo. Drew travelled to Dobropillia, just days after it was bombed by Russia on March 7, in an attack on civilians that reportedly killed 11 people and injured at least 50 others. It was described by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as cruel and "deliberately calculated to cause maximum damage". "That was probably the most confronting thing I saw," Drew said. "Two days before I was there Russia hit an apartment block with a ballistic missile… And then they hit the first responders with cluster munitions." The 25-year-old said "it was terrifying" to see the crater left behind by the bombing and the general aftermath of the attack. THE DOBROPILLYA MASSACRE: I saw the aftermath of a Russian massacre in Ukraine. Dozens of families were murdered in their beds as a result of this ''double tap'' missile strike on March 7 - just one day after Trump suspended intelligence sharing. Full video below - please… — Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇪🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) March 16, 2025 Drew said he met Australians who were fighting over there and couldn't help but notice the odd Australian flag on memorials for fallen soldiers dotted around parts of eastern Ukraine. Now back in Australia, attending university classes on Tuesday, Drew called the trip "probably the most meaningful week of my life". "My parents are really upset that I went… I didn't tell them I was going to the front line," he added. US President Donald Trump plans to speak to President Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, after positive talks between officials from both nations in Moscow. "We want to see if we can bring that war to an end," Trump told reporters on Air Force One earlier this week. "Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance... I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday [Wednesday AEST]. A lot of work's been done over the weekend." Trump is trying to win Putin's support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides continued trading heavy aerial strikes throughout the weekend. Russia is moving closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk. Asked about what concessions are being considered in ceasefire negotiations, Trump said: "We'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power plants... We're already talking about that, dividing up certain assets." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Putin would talk to Trump by phone on Tuesday, US time. The Kremlin earlier said on Friday that Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan via US envoy Steve Witkoff, who held talks in Moscow, expressing "cautious optimism" that a deal could be reached to end the three-year conflict. with Reuters Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
