MCLC: NYU booting Chen Guangcheng (8,9)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Magnus Fiskesjo <magnus.fiskesjo at cornell.edu>
Subject: NYU booting Chen Guangcheng (8)
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Source: BBC News (6/17/13):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22932009

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng blames Beijing for NYU exit

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has linked his departure from New
York University to "unrelenting pressure" from Beijing.

Mr Chen has been a fellow at NYU since mid-2012. He is to leave this month.

The activist caused a diplomatic flurry last year when he fled house
arrest and went to the US embassy in Beijing. He was later allowed to go
to the US.
NYU has rejected his claim, saying his fellowship had always been expected
to last a year at most.

"As early as last August and September, the Chinese Communists had already
begun to apply great, unrelenting pressure on New York University, so much
so that after we had been in the United States just three to four months,
NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with us," Mr Chen said
in a statement.

Beijing authorities wanted "to make me so busy trying to earn a living
that I don't have time for human rights advocacy, but this is not going to
happen", he said.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said Mr Chen's claims were "both false and
contradicted by the well-established facts".

"Mr Chen's fellowship at NYU and its conclusion have had nothing to do
with the Chinese government. All fellowships come to an end," he said in a
statement.

NYU last week rejected a report by the New York Post linking Mr Chen's
departure to its planned satellite campus in Shanghai, which is due to
open in September.

Prof Jerome Cohen, a NYU law professor who had helped broker Mr Chen's
fellowship at the university, said last week that the arrangement had
always been a short-term one to help Mr Chen and his immediate family "get
their feet on the ground and transition to a more permanent position".

Mr Chen is reported to be in talks with two US institutions about a
possible position.

The self-taught lawyer had campaigned against forced abortions under
China's one-child policy, but was jailed for four years in 2006 for
disrupting traffic and damaging property.

He was placed under house arrest after his release in 2010, until his
high-profile escape in April 2012.

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From: Timothy J.T. Pi <timothy.pi at gmail.com>
Subject: NYU booting Chen Guangcheng (9)

Source: The Epoch Times (6/17//13):
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/time-to-go-for-chen-guangcheng.html/

Chen Guangcheng: Chinese Regime Put ‘Unrelenting Pressure’ on NYU

Chinese dissident-lawyer Chen Guangcheng has come out with a statement
stating he is being forced from his fellowship at New York University due
to pressure from the Chinese regime, allegedly in response to Chen’s
outspoken advocacy for human rights in China.The news broke Sunday
evening, three days after initial reports to the effect emerged and were
quickly denied by an NYU spokesperson and the professor who brought Chen
to the United States, where he is now in exile.

“As early as last fall, in August and September, the Chinese Communist
Party already began to use all sorts of means to exert enormous pressure
on NYU. It was such that after we had been in the United States just three
to four months, NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with
us,” Chen said in the statement.

He was originally asked to leave by the end of June, but the deadline has
now been extended to July 15, since he leaves for Taiwan with his wife for
two weeks on June 23.

“The work of the Chinese Communists within academic circles in the United
States is far greater than what people imagine, and some scholars have no
option but to restrict themselves,” Chen said. The statement was in
English and Chinese, and was not published formally online; it was instead
sent directly to media outlets. The statement was embargoed until 12:01
a.m. on June 17, but the New York Times and other media reported it before
then.

“Academic independence and academic freedom in the United States are now
being greatly threatened by a dictatorship,” the statement said.

The narrative in the statement differs from the tone of a conversation
between The Epoch Times and a close associate of Chen’s on June 13, when
the news that Chen was leaving NYU was first reported by the New York
Post. The associate did not disclose that Chen and his wife believed that
pressure from the Chinese regime caused the university to ask Chen to
leave.

Chen’s statement did not detail specifically why he believed that NYU had
been put under political pressure, nor the specific ways in which it was
supposed to have pressured him. One situation reported by the New York
Times that took place in Washington– when two NYU handlers allegedly
prevented Chen from carrying on an interview with Radio Free
Asia–reportedly infuriated him.

Chen recently co-signed a letter with Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which included strongly-worded criticism of the
Chinese regime’s human rights abuses, including reference to religious
persecution, torture, slave labor camps, and organ harvesting. Linked to
the letter was a petition and YouTube music video associated with the film
Free China, which explores the stories of persecution of two practitioners
of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline which is heavily suppressed in China
and is highly politically sensitive to the Chinese regime. It is unclear
whether that letter, published on June 4, precipitated increased pressure.

In a brief telephone conversation on Thursday, Chen’s wife, Yuan Weijing,
would not say when they were asked to leave NYU; nor does the letter
provide that information. Neither Chen nor Yuan responded to a text
message late Sunday night.

New York University recently completed a campus in Shanghai, which is
anticipated to be a source of revenue for the institution; the New York
Post initially alleged that the campus was used to put pressure on NYU to
eject Chen. The university rejected this claim by noting that it had
agreed to take him in after it had begun establishing the campus. Chen
made a range of outspoken remarks about human rights in China in the 13
months he was at NYU. In a previous conversation, a close associate of
Chen’s said that he had felt pressured by the university not to be so
outspoken.

NYU spokesman John Beckman released a statement on Sunday which sought to
rebut Chen’s claims. “We are very discouraged to learn of Mr. Chen’s
statement, which contains a number of speculations about the role of the
Chinese government in N.Y.U.’s decision-making that are both false and
contradicted by the well-established facts,” it said. NYU, the statement
said, was “puzzled and saddened” by the situation.

Chen Guangcheng was blinded in his childhood and as an adult taught
himself law and used it to defend victims of violent abuse associated with
the one-child policy. His work led to a four-year prison sentence, which
expired in 2010; he was then placed under strict, extralegal house arrest.
In April of 2012 he escaped from his heavily guarded rural home with the
aide of associates, and sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
After tense negotiations between U.S. and Chinese diplomats, he was
allowed to come to the United States to take up a position that had been
offered to him by New York University.

At the end of his statement, Chen said that the Chinese regime is
attempting to “make me so busy trying to earn a living that I don’t have
time for human rights advocacy, but this is not going to happen.”

He continued: “Whether it was the dangers I faced in China or the current
momentary difficulties we face, I will never bow my head to evil or to
lies. I will always do everything I can for my compatriots back in China
who still are not free and who are now being oppressed.”