MCLC: academic ties with China face scrutiny

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Magnus Fiskesjo <magnus.fiskesjo at cornell.edu>
Subject: academic ties with China face scrutiny
***********************************************************

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (6/18/13):
http://chronicle.com/article/Academic-Ties-With-China-Face/139897/

Academic Ties With China Face New Scrutiny in Dispute Over Dissident
By Karin Fischer

If New York University expected to be putting out news releases related to
China during these sleepy summer months, it would probably have boasted
about the academically outstanding inaugural class on its new Shanghai
campus.

Instead, NYU found itself this week responding to charges that, under
pressure from the Chinese government, it had asked Chen Guangcheng, a
Chinese dissident who has spent the past year at the university as a
visiting fellow, to leave. The accusations were leveled by the blind
human-rights activist himself, who warned of threats to American academic
freedom and independence from "a totalitarian regime."

In a statement, John Beckman, a university spokesman, vigorously rebutted
the allegations, dismissing any such pressure as "fictional." Noting that
Mr. Chen's fellowship was meant to be temporary, he said, "We are puzzled
and saddened to see these false claims directed at us."

But given its high-profile Chinese presence, maybe NYU should not have
been shocked.

The rhetoric about overseas branch campuses has "generated such strong
story lines about the fear of nations like China constraining academic
freedom that even unrelated events can be easily wrapped into the plot,"
said Jason E. Lane, a director of the Cross-Border Education Research Team
at the State University of New York at Albany. "Thus, when a situation
such as the one with Chen arises, the institution is going to have to be
prepared for questions."

As American universities like NYU engage more, and more deeply, with China
and other countries that have limited protections for academic and
political speech, they may find themselves facing more of what might well
be called diplomatic challenges. The ties that bind American and Chinese
higher education, the Chen case shows, can also complicate.

There's no question that those linkages have grown stronger in recent
years. As China's universities, shuttered after the Cultural Revolution,
have opened to the outside, American institutions, eager to forge global
partnerships, have surged in. They have set up academic exchanges and
joint-degree programs, engaged in shared research, sent Americans there to
study abroad, and recruited many more Chinese students to campuses in the
United States.

But the collaborations sometimes come with a side of controversy. China
has periodically denied entry to, or even expelled, American scholars who
have criticized its policies. Chinese authorities have closed access to
research archives or canceled international conferences on sensitive
topics.

But, said Kevin Kinser, a colleague of Mr. Lane's at Albany, the stakes
may be greater now that universities like NYU are entering into
institutional partnerships. "Anytime we're talking about a university CEO
getting involved," said Mr. Kinser, who, with Mr. Lane, blogs for The
Chronicle, "it raises it to a whole different level."

'Spinning Fantasies'

College leaders, those at NYU included, say they have gone to China with
explicit pledges that academic inquiry will be protected. "Our Chinese
partners invited NYU to Shanghai with a full appreciation for the
centrality of academic freedom and responsibility to our community,"
Jeffrey S. Lehman, vice chancellor of NYU Shanghai, wrote via e-mail.
"They promised to respect those commitments, and they have done nothing to
suggest that they will do otherwise."

But some critics argue that those leaders may be naïve, at best, to
believe that they will be guaranteed such protections. Any foreign
university operating in China is subject to government control and
oversight, said Cary Nelson, a past president of the American Association
of University Professors.

He pointed to a recent Chinese-government directive that reportedly banned
the discussion in university classrooms of seven subjects, including press
freedom, universal values, and historical mistakes of the Chinese
Communist Party. "It ain't exactly American-style academic freedom," Mr.
Nelson said, adding that college officials are "spinning fantasies if they
think that's not a problem."

The AAUP, which has expressed concern about academic freedom at another
American outpost abroad, Yale-NUS College, in Singapore, could undertake a
broader investigation into the issues raised by international branch
campuses, Mr. Nelson said. However, such an inquiry could be costly, he
said, and the group has not yet decided to take that action.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican and the chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights, told The Hill,
a Washington newspaper, that he may hold hearings on the matter. NYU, he
said, is not the only American university "kowtowing to Beijing."

While past debates about overseas partnerships have centered on
protections for scholars and students at overseas campuses, the Chen case
has brought the discussion home, raising the question of whether
international engagement could have domestic consequences. Might
institutions shy away from certain research? Could pressure from foreign
governments have a chilling effect on their willingness to welcome certain
scholars or speakers to the home campus?

Bob Fu, an activist and founder of a nonprofit group, ChinaAid, has been
helping Mr. Chen, a self-taught lawyer, look for other academic homes. He
said some 90 percent of the colleges he had approached declined the offer,
explaining that having Mr. Chen on the campus could jeopardize their
programs or relationships in China.

Mr. Fu, who is based in Midland, Tex., said he had spoken twice with the
chancellor of a "major university" in that state. "He said, 'We support
Chen. We are sympathetic to his cause,'" Mr. Fu recalled. But the
university official said he was concerned that were the university to find
a place for Mr. Chen, it might lead the Chinese government to forbid the
750 Chinese students the university enrolls to study there, Mr. Fu said.
"We've never heard back."

Robert Quinn, executive director of the Scholars at Risk Network, said he
had not had a problem with institutions' declining to play host to
academics because of political pressure. While his group has not been
involved in the Chen case, Mr. Quinn said, "I do have a general concern
when a visitor-host relationship sours, as this could discourage other
institutions from going out of their way."

Subtle Pressure

Scholars who have long worked in and studied China say that the news
media's portrayal of the Chen case may leave the American public with the
impression that the Chinese government exerts overt, heavy pressure on
academics. "It's actually happening in a broader, deeper, more subtle
way," said Perry Link, a China scholar at the University of California at
Riverside. "The question is: How much do American academics compromise?"

Too often, said Mr. Link, who has been blacklisted by the Chinese
government because of his research on the Tiananmen Square protests,
foreign academics and institutions may voluntarily curb their own speech
or actions in order not to cross a political line.

Such behavior could continue as American universities deepen their work in
China, in part because of the vagueness of Chinese law on academic
freedom, said Mary E. Gallagher, an associate professor of political
science and director of the Center for China Studies at the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor.

The Chen case is unusual because it is so high-profile, but pressures
could be felt in "more mundane" ways, said Ms. Gallagher, who was on
sabbatical in Shanghai. For example, some faculty members might simply opt
not to teach at an overseas campus because they felt that their rights
would not be protected.

For James A. Millward, a history professor at Georgetown University whose
work on the independence movement in China's Xinjiang province resulted in
his being temporarily denied entry to China, the worst outcome would be
that American universities and scholars don't engage with China.

"The Chinese government is good at creating an environment that encourages
self-censorship. Not everyone is an Ai Weiwei," he said, referring to the
outspoken Chinese artist and activist.

Like the prominent and well-connected Mr. Ai, American universities have
leverage, argued Mr. Millward, because they have a product that China
wants. "We don't need to self-censor. We are Ai Weiwei."