Drew Pavlou, a 20-year-old Greek-Australian running for the Australian Senate seat from Queensland, said he was verbally abused and physically assaulted by Chinese “ultra-nationalists” on Saturday while demonstrating against the Chinese Communist regime in Sydney with a sign that read “F**k Xi Jinping.”

Pavlou was an outspoken human rights activist — and energetic critic of the Chinese Communist Party — during his tenure as a student at the University of Queensland (UQ). He claimed he was suspended from UQ for criticizing its ties to Beijing. The university said he was suspended for violating its code of conduct.

In December, he announced the formation of a new party, the Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance (DPDA), and pledged to recruit candidates of Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hong Kong extraction to run alongside him. Pavlou said he wanted his party to field candidates who had direct experience with Chinese oppression.

Pavlou was marching in Sydney alongside fellow DPDA candidate Kyinzom Dhongdue, a Tibetan-Australian, and some Chinese pro-democracy students when a pack of Chinese nationalists assembled to harass them:

Pavlou said the short video clip he posted to Twitter did not show the worst of the abuse, in part because the “protest journalist” covering his demonstration was attacked by the Chinese nationalists:

In an interview on Monday, Pavlou described his assailants as “fascists” and noted left-wing Australian protests routinely feature signs with messages like “F**k Sco Mo,” a reference to current Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“No one gets attacked when they put up a sign like that, no one gets charged by police,” he complained. 

Pavlou said on Monday that New South Wales police are investigating him for provoking the assault, rather than the people who attacked him:

Pavlou was further infuriated that Australia’s Election Commission appears to be encouraging “fascist pro-CCP supporters” who cheered the attack and promised to organize further violence against him:

“My point is a simple one – I should be able to insult a dictator like Xi Jinping in my own country without being physically assaulted and attacked,” Pavlou wrote on Facebook.

“Australia is a democracy and we should be free to insult any leader no matter how coarsely – this is a simple principle of free speech,” he said.

“No way would I have been surrounded by 50 people and physically assaulted if I held up a sign saying ‘F**k Scott Morrison’ in Sydney. Why should Chinese ultra-nationalists get a free pass to assault people in Australia if someone insults Xi Jinping?” he asked.

Chinese ultra-nationalist students in Australia have a history of using violence to suppress criticism of the Chinese Communist  Party, including some incidents at the height of the Hong Kong democracy movement that Pavlou was involved in while he was a student.