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many with some kind of government linkage underscores the need for vigilance in enforcing a stricter code of due diligence and transparency on the part of university administrations and faculties.
Pressure on University Administrations
There are a large number of successful exchange programs between American and Chinese universities. Three US universities have developed campuses in China (Johns Hopkins, Duke, NYU), more than one hundred universities participate in cooperative- education programs in China, and countless US faculty members participate in collaborative projects with Chinese colleagues (principally in the sciences). These relationships have not been easy to establish or maintain, but they have generally been successful. A 2016 report by the Government Accounting Office, which reviewed the cooperative programs of twelve American universities, found that the universities “generally indicated that they experienced academic freedom,” while noting that
self- and internet censorship remains a problem.
In recent years, the outlook for these collaborations has deteriorated in line with broader restrictions on academic freedom on Chinese campuses. In 2013, and commensurate with CCP Central Committee Document No. 9, universities were reportedly instructed to avoid discussing topics including “universal values” and civil rights,?” and admonitions against teaching of Western values have continued. Since 2017, foreign university collaborative institutions have been required to institute Communist Party committees and place a Party secretary on their management boards.*8 In July 2018, the Ministry of Education ended 234, or one-fifth, of its international university partnerships. More than twenty-five programs with American universities were among them.”
The Chinese government has demonstrated a penchant for turning to these collaborations as points of leverage when US universities have hosted the Dalai
Lama or held other events deemed politically sensitive or offensive to the Chinese government. In such instances, existing collaborative exchange programs have been suspended or put on hold, planned visits of university administrators have been canceled, programs between university institutes and centers have been suspended, and Chinese students wishing to study at these US institutions have been counseled to go elsewhere. Such punitive actions resulting from campus visits by the Dalai Lama have been taken against Emory University, the University of Maryland, the University of California-San Diego, and others. In the case of the University of Maryland, which hosted the Dalai Lama in 2013, there was temporary fallout, and then following the 2017 graduation incident the Chinese government again halted cooperation, seriously damaging one of the most extensive exchange programs with China.
Section 4
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