Knowledge and its Enemies: Towards a New Case for Higher Learning ...

Introduction

Before Zhang Hong Jie's murderer slipped out of a flat in Minnamurra into the mid-winter Canberra cold, he rolled her body in rugs and doused it with insecticide and perfume. Over the coming weeks and months, the twenty-three-year-old Zhang Long used a cunning ruse to conceal his actions. Using the e-mail account of his victim, known as ‘Steffi’, and posing as her, he kept in contact with her parents and her cousins, maintaining a perfectly credible virtual presence. As far as Steffi's family and friends in China knew, she was still attending tutorials and lectures at the University of Canberra.

It took nearly eight months before the stench of her decomposing body overwhelmed neighbours and they contacted police. By this time, Zhang was long gone, having fled back to his home province in China. Police used DNA sampling to identify the body, and then the international ordeal began. The killer was tracked down, and he confessed. Police had quickly dismissed any conspiracy theories. Zhang was no spy. Steffi was not part of Falun Gong. The forensics showed that this was a domestic brawl gone terribly wrong. However, the Australian authorities refused