1/x Important article, worth reading in full. WHO IS the “important person” at Harvard who called trying to silence this brave Chinese dissident? The following are 100% verbatim quotes from the Harvard Crimson: “He told me to cancel the talk....” thecrimson.com/article/2020/4…
2/x “He told me the time we were supposed to give our talk, that day was when the Harvard president would fly back from Beijing. And a few weeks before that, the Harvard president was meeting Xi Jinping.”
3/x “The administrator told him hosting an event with two Chinese dissidents only days after a historic meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and then University President Drew G. Faust would ‘embarrass’ Harvard, Teng recalls.”
4/x “The second phone call, on March 10, was a formal and final warning. The powerful person called Teng to his office and told him the event would embarrass the University and potentially threaten the continuation of collaborative programs and joint research with China.”
5/x “That powerful person also made Teng promise to keep the cancellation a secret, and at the time Teng told almost nobody. Chen was particularly struck by this self-censorship.”
6/x “Though the Harvard-China relationship always entailed mutual benefit, it was for decades asymmetrical — China needed Harvard more than Harvard needed China, which perhaps gave the University more leeway to be critical of the Chinese government.”
7/x “But over the past decade, China’s global influence has grown dramatically. In 2010, China became the world’s second-largest economy; in 2018, it surpassed the U.S. in terms of scientific papers published. Escalating tensions have accompanied this shift in global power....”
8/x “...threatening to compromise Harvard and China’s special relationship: Xi has cracked down on dissent both within and outside of China’s borders, and the FBI has launched numerous investigations into alleged Chinese industrial and academic ‘espionage,’ including one...”
9/x “into undisclosed Chinese funding sent to...former Chem Dept Chair, Charles Lieber. As the geopolitical & academic balance shifts in China’s favor, the Teng Biao incident may indicate that, at least in some instances, HARVARD DEPENDS MORE ON CHINA THAN THE OTHER WAY AROUND.”
10/x “‘Western institutions, think tanks, universities, they don’t want to anger the Chinese government because they want to keep a good relationship with their Chinese counterparts,’ Teng says.”
11/x “And, given Harvard’s status in the international academic hierarchy, Chinese authorities may be particularly interested in the University. ‘We’ve had Chinese citizens at Harvard, who are clearly doing the bidding of the Chinese state, coming and sitting in on talks...’”
12/x “‘...and taking notes and reporting back,’ Perry says. She similarly suspects Chinese citizens of reporting on visiting Chinese scholars’ activities.”
13/x “What is clear is that even if Teng Biao was the victim of a one-time exception at Harvard, the cancellation is not exceptional but rather a flashpoint in the evolving relationship between Chinese and American universities, between the Chinese and American governments....”
14/x “There may be a history of Harvard-China collaboration, as well as a history of universities acting as safety valves during tense geopolitical moments — but the nexus of racialist U.S. rhetoric, rising authoritarianism under President Xi & shifting global power dynamics...”
15/x “...between the world’s two superpowers has no historical precedent. Harvard’s prestige may have once served as a backstop for the long arm, but the defense now seems partial at best. And if one such incident occurred at the University, it opens the possibility for more.”
16/x “The censorship, the self-censorship, is EVERYWHERE,” Teng says.
