Students protest US university's termination of program for Chinese researchers

By Zhang Han and Cui Fandi Source: Global Times Published: 2020/9/1 19:28:40

China US File photo



Chinese students and scholars at the University of North Texas (UNT) have launched an online petition after the school announced a "sudden and arbitrary" termination of the status of at least 15 visiting scholars without giving specific reasons, and they urged the university to revoke the decision. 

The school in the southern US state sent emails to the scholars on August 26, notifying them that their access to school resources, including email accounts, servers and other materials, had been terminated. They were also not allowed to visit the campus unaccompanied.

The decision means the scholars were only given a one-month grace period to handle the disruption to their research, end their house leases, pack their belongings and buy tickets - an  expensive and difficult process - to leave the US. 

Students and scholars signed a petition on the website change.org calling for support and urging the school to revoke its decision. 

"The school did not explain the reason and UNT seems to be the only American university to have made such an announcement so far," Liang Yuheng, a UNT graduate and initiator of the petition, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

UNT does not have a large community of Chinese students and scholars. "Our voice is small, but we appreciate that many American schoolmates and professors are forwarding the message and supporting us," Liang said. 

Adam Briggle, an associate professor of philosophy at UNT who has hosted seven Chinese scholars over the past nine years, said he "did not think it is fair to abruptly terminate the visas for these scholars," which he called an unnecessarily blunt and abrupt policy.

"It is my understanding that there are no credible or specific allegations against any of the Chinese visiting scholars at UNT, let alone all of them," he wrote on the petition website, noting that the consequences of the action for the scholars were severe amid the pandemic. 

The scholars affected have been sponsored by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), a non-profit institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education that provides financial assistance to Chinese who wish to study abroad and foreigners who want to study in China.

Amid public concerns, the university on Tuesday said on social media that the action was limited to the 15 scholars and "UNT continues to welcome visiting scholars from around the world, including China."

But the response further infuriated people. "Yes, an excellent welcome," said a Twitter user. 

One of the affected scholars told the Global Times that they did not feel they were given any respect or basic human rights in the process. 

"It is easy to say laudable-sounding words to the media, but who knows who will be the next (to be deported)," a UNT student who requested anonymity told the Global Times.

"It is a betrayal of a school culture that embraces diversity and inclusiveness," said another student, noting that American professors and colleagues of the Chinese scholars will also pay the price of such a sudden disruption to research. 

Infographic: GT


The Global Times learned that the CSC and the Chinese embassy in the US are trying to arrange seats on chartered flights for these students.

The school's hostility comes at a time of escalating China-US tensions. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview on Monday that US President Donald Trump was weighing restrictions on Chinese students seeking to study in the US.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said during Tuesday's press conference that the UNT case is another example of US disruption of China-US cultural exchanges. 

Openness, inclusiveness, and diversity were the founding principles of the US, but the US today is completely different, filled with hatred and xenophobia, Hua said, urging the US to take a rational view of China-US relations and cultural exchanges, and work to facilitate mutual understanding, perception, and cooperation between Chinese and US people.

Analysts noted that demonization, harassment and disturbance by the US government or individual universities will deter Chinese students and scholars, which ultimately serves the US agenda of decoupling from China. 



Posted in: SOCIETY

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