Banned Chinese scholar says guilty of emojis, not security risk in Australia

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, and former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam are pictured in Xiamen, China, in this 1990 handout image. Chen Hong/Handout via REUTERS

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Chinese scholar banned from Australia on security grounds says he has become critical of Canberra in recent years but is no security risk, adding his biggest contribution to a WeChat group at the centre of a security investigation was usually an emoji.

A decision by Australia's national security agency to cancel the visas of two Chinese academics of Australian literature has embroiled Canberra's oldest soft power programme in China in a bitter diplomatic dispute.