Michael Martina
Washington (Reuters) -Harvard University ties with China, long assets to school, became a responsibility because Trump’s administration level is alleging that its town is plagued by Beijing -based influences.
On Thursday, the administration began to cancel Harvard’s chances of admitting foreign students, saying that it encouraged anti -Semitism and coordinated with the Chinese Communist Party. Among them are Chinese citizens who were in 2024. Consisted of about one -fifth of Harvard foreign students, the university said.
A US judge temporarily blocked the administration’s order after Cambridge, Massachusetts, University.
Anxiety about the influence of the Chinese government in Harvard is not new. Some US lawmakers, many of them Republicans, have expressed concerns that China is manipulating Harvard to use US advanced technology, bypassing US security laws and suppressing it in the US.
“For too long, Harvard allowed the Chinese Communist Party to exploit it,” the White House official told Reuters on Friday, adding that the school “closed his eyes to the buddy CCP-remedy in the city.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to the requests to comment.
The school said that the cancellation was a punishment for Hardard’s “perceived approach”, which it called the freedom violation, as guaranteed by the first amendment to the US Constitution.
Harvard’s ties with China, including research partnership and China -oriented academic centers, are long -term. Communications gave great financial gifts, influence on international affairs and global prestige on school.
Former Harvard President Larry Summers, who sometimes critically evaluated the university, called Trump’s administration a step to block foreign students to the university so far.
“It’s hard to imagine a bigger strategic gift to China than the US to donate its role as a lighthouse in the world,” he said in an interview with Politico.
Health training
In its report, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said: “China -US education and cooperation is mutually beneficial and should not be stigmatized.”
The presence of Chinese students in Harvard and the school’s relationship with the country is not proof of violations. However, the complexity and coincidence of the relationship was opaque enough to attract attention and criticism.
The issues related to China, cited by the short administration, reflect the work of the China’s Choice Committee of the Republican House of Representatives.
For example, Harvard after 2020 Formed public -related training for Xinjiang’s officers (XPCC) officers. That year, the US introduced sanctions on Chinese paramilitary organizations for their role in suspected human rights violations against Uigs and other Muslim ethnic groups Xinjiang.
The Homeland Security Department stated that those involvement with XPCC continued “as early as 2024.”
China has strongly denies accusations of unlawful actions in Xinjiang, but defined both Trump and Biden’s Beijing policies in the region as a “genocide.”
In another episode, which contains questions, the risk of a US business intelligence company strategy said Ronnie Chan, who was in 2014. Facilitated $ 350 million.
The Hong Kong organization, which says its aim is to promote the dialogue between two countries, was classified under US law as a foreign director, demanding that the US lobbyists working to reveal the work to the US government.
Former professor convicted
Former Harvard Professor Charles Lieber was tested in 2018. Trump’s program, known as China’s initiative, was focused on the struggle of spying and intellectual ownership of China and investigating researchers and universities, whether they revealed financial relations with Beijing.
2021 He was convicted of lying about his ties with China, associated with federal funded research. In April, he became a regular professor at the University of China.
The initiative was suspended under the leadership of the Biden Administration after critics argued that this led to racial profiling and a culture of fear that chilled scientific cooperation.
US lawmakers expressed concern about the efforts of Beijing students’ associations from both countries to observe political activities. 2024. April The activist of Harvard students was physically thrown from a Chinese exchange student – not faculty or security guards – for interrupting the language of Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng.
In Trump’s second term in Harvard, there was pressure, April. The Department of Education asked the University to submit records of its foreign funding after she said the necessary reports of large foreign source gifts and contracts were reported, disclosing incomplete and inaccurate disclosure.
The steps of the short administration against Harvard, however, excited some Chinese experts.
US human rights researcher Yaqiu Wang, who came to the United States from China as a student, said Trump’s administration’s move to ban foreign students in Harvard was “completely unproductive.”
“Concerns about the attempts of international repression by the Chinese government to silence critics are very legal and the problems of espionage are also lawful.” Said Wang. “But trying to solve this by banning not only Chinese students but also foreign students, it just doesn’t understand.”
(Michael Martina Reports; Additional Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom Reports; Edited by Don Durfee, Cynthia Osterman and Diane Craft)