![]() ![]() institutions are just as vulnerable to the CCP’s ideological strictures and what O’Dwyer calls a “vaguely defined system of censorship, with ambiguously drawn and arbitrarily enforced ‘red lines.’” That’s a shame because recent events show that U.S. Department of State and numerous other countries have concluded, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is committing genocide against the Uyghur people, among other human rights abuses.Ī recent HxA piece by Shaun O’Dwyer highlighted the restrictions on academic freedom across East Asia - restrictions that go largely unnoticed here in the U.S. That image is particularly vulnerable now because, as the U.S. But it is part of a larger pattern - one linked to a multipronged effort by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to influence and control its image abroad. Given the freedoms typically touted on college campuses, GWU’s reactionary effort to limit student criticism of the Chinese government might stand out as unusual. Within days, Wrighton issued a statement promising not to punish the students involved. ![]() Then, almost casually, he committed to “determin who responsible.” There was a swift backlash both online, where freedom of expression advocates like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) condemned the email, and among GWU students, who organized a protest in response. In the petition, which was sent directly to GWU’s president, Mark Wrighton, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) demanded that the university remove the posters, identify the students responsible, and “punish them severely” for “insult China.” In a leaked email response, Wrighton wrote that he was “personally offended” by the posters and promised to have them removed. They were quickly removed and would have gone largely unnoticed had it not been for the firestorm ignited by the university’s response to a student petition. The posters decried the internment and cultural genocide of Uyghurs, the crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, and China’s lack of transparency during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly before the Winter Olympics in Beijing this past February, students at George Washington University (GWU) put up posters criticizing the Chinese government’s policies. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |