It is difficult to tell whether the author is being serious or ironic when he has focused on this incident of accepted corruption by a Chinese student as an example of a desirable cultural difference to be tolerated and learned from.

Why does this student choose to study in Australia, and perhaps eventually apply for PR (as most international students do)? Is it to learn something about Australian society, or is it to impose her values on the host country? Does she see an opportunity for a prosperous, comfortable middle class life in Australia? If so, she might reflect upon how that middle class life is lived. In Australia, this middle class life includes doing most things openly. In China, one can enjoy a middle class life, but one is subject to the whims of officials who may demand bribes for services taken for granted in Australia. Would this student change things in Australia, so that we have to pay a bribe for everything that makes for a decent life, e.g., bribing school officials for a place in a decent school, bribing teachers to pay more attention to our children or bribing municipal officials to repair roads in our local area, to name but some examples?

Yes in Australia, we also have corruption, but we also have ICACs, Royal Commissions, Ombudsmen and a free press to investigate corruption.

Instead of being granted PR, this student should return to China where she can demonstrate true bravery and determination fighting the Chinese government for the release of those Australians who are in Chinese prisons on specious bribery charges. Perhaps she can eloquently persuade government officials that they have misconstrued the actions of those Australians and that the whole thing was a cultural misunderstanding.

For its part, Sydney University has been shamefully remiss in giving in to this student. Its actions will not give the student a sense of what a civil society is.

There are some aspects of our culture which cannot be compromised in the name of diversity and tolerance. One of those aspects is the idea of a civil society.