A screenshot of Wu Wei's Weibo.

A teaching assistant at the University of Sydney has been accused of racism for his online comments targeting Chinese international students.

Wu Wei, a Chinese-Australian PhD student and head tutor at the University of Sydney's business school, was charged for calling Chinese international students "pigs" on Weibo, a social media platform widely used in China.

His remarks triggered great rage among Chinese international students who presented a petition to the university protesting Wu's racist comments in the name of University of Sydney Business Association (USBA).

The USBA exposed Wu's comments from his Weibo account. One of the screenshots shows that a Chinese international student stated Wu was a shame of the Australian-Chinese community. Wu replied back saying the finance courses are difficult and wondered how much time the "pigs" will spend on essays.

Evidence also shows that Wu burned a Chinese passport in the toilet in 2015 after he was granted an Australian citizenship.

The topic quickly assembled 9,000 Chinese netizens since being exposed on Weibo yesterday.

Wu's behaviours have drawn criticism on the Internet. A cyber citizen named hellojimmy said, "it's universally identified that no one can gain superiority by disrespecting his motherland. He will eat the bitter fruit which bears from his misbehavior. Why don't we just hold the temper and wait to see what happens to him."

Another netizen with the username Bohemia wrote that Wu is just a little dizzy with his secular success.

"Let's get over him and guard his freedom to utter his personal voice," said Bohemia.

According to the Daily Mail, the university launched an investigation on Wu.