Frankie Cordeira Jr.

Description: Nasty tactics blindside universities... Chinas booming economy has increasingly allowed more of its young men and women to seek a college education in the West; 329000 now study in the United States more than five times the number recorded a decade ago. By far the largest contingent of foreign students they can be an economic lifeline for colleges since they usually pay full tuition and they can provide a healthy dose of international diversity. But those students often bring to campus something else from home: the watchful eyes and occasionally heavy hand of the Chinese government manifested through its ties to many of the some 150 chapters of the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations. The groups have worked in tandem with Beijing to promote a pro-Chinese agenda and tamp down anti-Chinese speech on Western campuses. At Columbia a decade ago the club mobilized students to protest a presentation about human rights violations in China urging them to resolutely defend the honor and dignity of the Motherland. At Duke the group was accused of inciting a harassment campaign in 2008 against a Chinese student who tried to mediate between sides in a Tibet protest. More recently in Durham England the group acted at the behest of the Chinese government to censor comments at a forum on China-Hong Kong relations. In rare instances members of the student group have been accused of spying. The organizations influence troubles some China scholars and human rights activists who say it wields outsize sway over American campuses because of the sizable tuition paid by Chinese students abroad a group recently exhorted by Chinas government to increase their patriotism and devotion to the Communist Party. I basically dont think that any student organizations that are controlled by their government which clearly the C.S.S.A. is should have a presence on foreign university campuses said Jeffrey Henderson a professor of international development at the University of Bristol in England. A Hong Kong expert Dr. Henderson was invited to speak at a 2014 workshop at Durham University in England organized by the Chinese Students and Scholars and two other groups to discuss the Umbrella Movement in which protesters had shut down streets in Hong Kong demonstrating against the Chinese governments failure to hold democratic elections there. Two days before the workshop Dr. Henderson said he received an email on behalf of the president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association stating that the Chinese Embassy in London was very concerned that nothing should go on in the workshop that disturbs the harmonious relationship between Hong Kong and China. Dr. Henderson arrived with plans to ignore the embassy guidance. Yet he found the seminars Q. and A. session tightly controlled permitting only written questions that had been vetted. Meetings in Motel Rooms For the most part the clubs function as run-of-the-mill campus groups providing transportation for new arrivals sponsoring Lunar New Year celebrations and organizing bilingual job fairs. Joining the Chinese Students and Scholars Association on some campuses is competitive. Students are required to apply for spots on club committees and being accepted confers a certain measure of prestige; members often trumpet it on their LinkedIn pages. Neither the Chinese embassies in Washington and London nor the consulate in Los Angeles responded to questions about their ties to the student organizations. Leo Yao departing president of the student associations chapter at U.C. San Diego said the groups only regular interaction with the government was an annual meeting at the consulate during which student safety and campus events are discussed. So its true that we have connections with the consulate but its not the kind of relations that many people say we have said Mr. Yao a probability and statistics major from Zhuhai China. They think we represent the Chinese government that we do things the Chinese government tells us to do things like that but thats not true. Chinese Students and Scholars Association groups started to spread in the 1980s as the number of Chinese students studying abroad began to grow. I came to the U.S. and thought Wow great Im in a free country now I hope that everything is cool and happy said Frank Tian Xie who arrived in the late 1980s to study chemistry at Purdue University. But I found out that the government extended their control to even Chinese students in America. Dr. Xie now a professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken said the Chinese Consulate in Chicago tried to handpick officers of the organization and periodically sent a representative to meet with students in a motel room. Li Fengzhi a longtime employee of the Chinese Ministry of State Security who came to the United States in 2003 as a graduate student at the University of Denver said that the Chinese government did not see the group so much as a spying operation but rather as a propaganda and information collection organization. Mr. Li eventually defected and was debriefed by F.B.I. counterintelligence agents about the groups activities. The ties between the Chinese government and the student groups are not exactly secret. At some colleges like the University of Connecticut and the University of North Texas the groups websites mention that they are supported by or affiliated with Chinese consulates. Michigan Technological Universitys group acknowledges a relationship with the Chinese Embassy then adds However C.S.S.A. will not participate in any political revolutions unless in special conditions. But their relationship can also be covert. In the 1990s Canadian immigration officials accused a leader of the groups chapter at Concordia University in Montreal of using funds from the Chinese government and supplying Chinese diplomats with information regarding pro-democracy Chinese students. In 2005 authorities in Belgium said they had identified another Chinese spy a member of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Leuven University coordinating industrial espionage agents throughout Europe according to an unclassified 2011 F.B.I. report. Perry Link a China expert and co-editor of the English version of The Tiananmen Papers a compilation of secret Chinese documents relating to the Tiananmen Square protests characterized the student organization as a tool of the governments foreign ministry that among other activities keeps tabs on unpatriotic speech among Chinese students. The effect of that surveillance is less that certain people are caught and punished and more that virtually all Chinese students know they could be reported and therefore watch what they say in public fora said Dr. Link now a professor at the University of California Riverside. Off-Limits Topics At Columbia in 2007 a Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas arrived to find heavy security and a protest by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association against his presentation on Chinas mistreatment of adherents of Falun Gong a spiritual practice that combines portions of Buddhism meditation and exercise and is banned by the government. Later a threatening email apparently directed at Mr. Matas was sent to the Columbia groups website stating Anyone who offends China will be executed no matter how far away they are Mr. Matas said recently. Last month the Columbia chapter held its annual China Prospects Conference at the Low Memorial Library at Columbia focusing on economic policy and sustainable development. Several dozen government academic and business leaders spoke to an audience of mostly Chinese students and the agenda avoided third-rail topics such as human rights Taiwan and the Dalai Lama. A conference program said it had full support from the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China. Several colleges where the Chinese Students and Scholars Association openly acknowledges ties to the Chinese government including Columbia said such ties did not violate any college rules. But colleges have found themselves caught up in Chinese politics just the same. After the University of Calgary conferred an honorary degree on the Dalai Lama in 2009 the Chinese government withdrew Calgary from its list of accredited international universities for a year. Enrollment from China dipped slightly then grew again after accreditation was restored and is now a quarter of the universitys total international students. At U.C. San Diego about 3500 undergraduates hail from China or more than 10 percent of the student body. They pay more than twice what California students pay providing critical revenue at a time when the University of California system is financially pressured. Last year Mr. Khosla the chancellor laid the groundwork for the Dalai Lamas speech meeting with him in Dharamsala India where the Dalai Lama has lived since fleeing Tibet after a 1959 uprising. Through his office Mr. Khosla declined to be interviewed. Photo Chancellor Pradeep Khosla of the University of California San Diego met with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala India in October 2016. Other than Mr. Yao the exiting club president members of the group declined requests for interviews. But some other Chinese students said they also were offended by the Dalai Lamas invitation. At the Price Center a campus student center and food court several who were eating lunch one recent afternoon predicted protests on June 17 commencement day. One said his parents were going to miss his graduation because they refused to be present for the Dalai Lamas speech. Shiwei Terry Zhou a junior from Wuhan China said the students felt targeted by the universitys decision. We make good grades. We dont make trouble. We pay a lot Mr. Zhou said. What is the motivation? Despite the pressure the university has not backed down. At a meeting with Mr. Khosla members of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association asked that the university at least refrain from referring to the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader and that he be prevented from discussing politics. Rebranding is very important so we wont take this personally maybe Mr. Yao said. The university has not said if it will comply with those demands. In a statement it said it has always served as a forum for discussion and interaction on important public policy issues and respects the rights of individuals to agree or disagree as we consider issues of our complex world. Continue reading the main story
By Frankie Cordeira Jr.
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