Three Chinese international students say two women confronted them near Central Station in the Sydney CBD in the early hours of last Saturday, then followed them after they tried to walk away, swore at them, and hurled racist and sexually explicit abuse before one allegedly grabbed Lenny Tai by the neck, choked him and scratched his face.
Who Gets Left to Absorb the Damage
Tai, 29, and his two friends, Minghao Zhan, 20, and one other who asked not to be named, were waiting near Central Station for a DiDi ride-share trip home when the confrontation began on the opposite side of the road. The men tried to avoid it. That didn’t stop the pair from crossing over and closing in anyway. The whole scene, captured on video by Minghao, lays out the basic hierarchy of the street: three students trying to get home, and two strangers deciding they could turn a public place into a site of abuse.
In the footage, one of the women can be heard saying: “You wanna f---ing say that c---? In Australia? … You will never be let back in our country”, before she starts shoving and grabbing the men. Tai said he was grabbed by the neck, choked and scratched on the face. The language wasn’t subtle. It didn’t need to be. The point was domination, and the target was clear.
Zhan and Tai reported the incident to police that day. NSW Police have begun an investigation into the incident on the corner of Pitt Street and Hay Street in Haymarket. A police spokesperson said, “The man was allegedly assaulted by two women who were unknown to him.” The spokesperson said, “The man sustained a scratch to his chin during the alleged assault.”
What Safety Looks Like From Below
Tai said he has not left his home since the alleged attack took place five days ago. He has lived in Sydney for five years. “I have nightmares every night, even last night … We couldn’t sleep well, I can’t eat, it’s painful for me to recall that night,” he told the Herald. “I live very close to where it happened. I don’t feel safe.”
That’s the cost when public space stops feeling public. It lands on the people with the least power to make it otherwise. Tai’s account is not about abstract concern. It’s about not sleeping, not eating, and staying inside because the street outside his home now carries the memory of an attack.
Zhan said the incident highlighted public safety concerns for international students living in Sydney. “I feel really scared,” Zhan said. “I think it’s not just Chinese students … These people hate Asians.” His words point to the wider fear that sits behind the footage: not one isolated confrontation, but a climate where students can be singled out and made to feel they don’t belong.
What the Institutions Admit, and What They Don’t Fix
A 2026 study by the Australian Human Rights Commission found international students attending university in Australia experienced high levels of racism in public places. It also found that the vilification of Chinese international students worsened after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study gives the official record a neat little stamp, but the facts in this case show how little that recognition changes when people are out in the street and on their own.
Police urged anyone with information about the incident to contact Sydney City Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. That’s the familiar script: report it, file it, wait for the apparatus to move. Meanwhile, the students who were allegedly attacked are the ones left dealing with the fear, the injuries, and the aftershock.
The footage, the police statement, and the students’ accounts all point to the same ugly arrangement. The public space was there. The protection wasn’t. And the people expected to keep moving through the city are the ones who pay when that gap opens up.