Vicky Xu

Vicky Xiuzhong Xu (Chinese: 许秀中; pinyin: Xǔ Xiùzhōng; born 1994) is a China-born Australian journalist and writer. She is best known for investigative work on human rights abuses in China. During and after college, she wrote for the New York Times from Beijing, Melbourne, and Sydney. In 2020, Xu authored the report, Uyghurs for Sale, stating many Uyghurs from Xinjiang had been moved to China proper for forced labour.This reported was widely read and cited by media outlets, legislations and prosecutors in Australia, the US and Europe.

Xu regularly appears on Australian television and radio, primarily in her capacity as a China expert and commentator. In 2020 she debated with Xining Wang, China's then Deputy Head of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in Australia on Australian national television, marking the first and only recorded live debate between a senior Chinese government representative and a PRC citizen. (Xu has since relinquished her Chinese citizenship.)

Around April 2021 the Chinese government launched an unprecedented campaign of transnational repression against Xu, which included the interrogation and detention of her close friend, rolling media coverage in the Chinese language accusing Xu of "treason", drug consumption, and promiscuity. Some articles referred to Xu as a "demon". During an Australian parliamentary hearing in 2023, Xu revealed that the campaign had cost her relationship with family and friends in China, and that the "sheer quantity" of threats and hate messages rendered her "powerless" for a period of time.

Xu was born in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, China.

Education in China

Xu's high school is No. 3 Middle School of Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company(嘉峪关市酒钢三中). In 2012, Xu entered the Communication University of China in Beijing. In a gap year in 2014, Xu travelled to Perth, teaching Mandarin at a suburban high school. At this point she was a CCP supporter. However, she began to question her views on Chinese politics after watching former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy's documentary about reporting on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Study in Melbourne and Jerusalem

Abandoning her studies in Beijing, Xu became an undergraduate in Political Science at the University of Melbourne with an exchange semester at Harry S. Truman Research Institute. At this time, Xu was openly supportive of the CCP. However, after interviewing a Chinese dissident, Wu Lebao, for an assignment, Xu began to review her previous positions.

After leaving China, Xu has worked as a journalist for Australian and US media, and performed stand-up comedy. More recently, she has served as a policy analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Journalist, comedian, analyst

During her studies, Xu wrote as a freelancer for The New York Times in Beijing and Sydney.

After her graduation in 2018, Xu worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), The New York Times and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Xu's reports have covered such topics as Australia–China relations, human rights abuses in China, and Australia's diaspora communities.

Parallel to a successful career in investigative journalism, Xu moonlighted as a stand-up comedian in Sydney, working alongside prominent groups such as The Chaser and appearing on skits produced by the national broadcaster ABC.

On a TV panel discussion in February 2020, Xu debated Wang Xining, the deputy head of China’s embassy in Australia over China's treatment of Uyghurs. In March, as the lead author on the report Uyghurs for Sale, Xu documented evidence showing that Chinese authorities were displacing Uyghur people from Xinjiang to other regions in China, then using them as forced labor, often to manufacture goods for global brands such as Adidas, Apple, BMW and Nike. The report became a basis for statements by US government agencies, along with European and Canadian universities, against Chinese mistreatment of ethnic and religious minorities. Xu has criticised the Australian government for not recognizing the Uyghur human rights crisis as genocide. She has also been critical of some China hawks, such as Sharri Markson for basing their views of China and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on conspiracy theories.

Targeting and harassment

By 2019, Xu and her family were being actively harassed, with calls for her father, from whom she is now estranged, to be "punished" with exile on account of his daughter's views. When visiting her dying grandmother, she was warned not to return to China. In 2021, a four-part exposee about her private life was created.

In April, during a nation-wide smear campaign, the Chinese state media called her a traitor, a pawn controlled by the West, or a “female demon.” Queries for her name turn up thousands of results, including videos claiming to reveal details of her dating life, calling her “promiscuous” and “drug infested.” Internet users in China made death threats and called for her family to be tracked down. On an Australian news panel, Xu disclosed that harassment has extended beyond her, that: "people close to me who still live in China have been targeted by Chinese intelligence operatives. People close to me have been interrogated repeatedly and detained. They're paying a price for me to tell the truth here."

In January 2021, Allen & Unwin announced plans to publish Xu's upcoming memoir, You're So Brave.