For some time I’ve known it’s dangerous to criticize the Chinese government on some American campuses. Emerson College investigated a student group that dared to criticize the Chinese rulers and then suspended it, and as far as I can tell it has never backed away from its contemptible decree. Mark Wrighton, president of George Washington University, declared he was “personally offended” by posters criticizing China and would “undertake an effort to determine who is responsible.” He backed off when he found himself facing more publicity than he bargained for.
Fandom gets a large proportion of its new people from college students and recent graduates. If they learn there that they should shut up about China while on campus, they may carry that habit over into their fannish activities. This, I’m sure, is one reason for the lack of widespread calls to boycott the Chengdu Worldcon. But how widespread is this effect? Are Emerson and GWU outliers? Lately I’ve looked into the ways China intimidates Western educational institutions and found that varying levels of intimidation are common.
Sara McLaughlin’s article, “China Wants to Silence Critics, Universities Must Fight Back” provides important information. Chinese students at Western schools are often, in effect, hostages, subject to punishment under China’s so-called “national security” law if they get involved in criticism of the government. Professors and instructors have self-censored to avoid putting their students at risk. An online discussion of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs was the target of political “Zoom-bombing.”
Teng Biao, a frequent speaker on human rights in China, was disinvited from speaking at Harvard in 2015 because it would “potentially threaten the continuation of collaborative programs and joint research with China.” In other words, money was the issue.
Money was an issue when North Carolina State University rescinded its invitation to the Dalai Lama in 2009. The Washington Post says:
At North Carolina State University in 2009, the Confucius Institute allegedly objected to the university’s invitation to the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan spiritual leader whom China considers a traitor. The event was canceled. While the official rationale was a lack of time and resources, the university provost told Bloomberg, “I don’t want to say we didn’t think about whether there were implications. Of course you do. China is a major trading partner for North Carolina.”
(The linked Bloomberg article is paywalled.)
The US State Department has issued a warning about the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, saying its purpose is “to monitor Chinese students and mobilize them against views that dissent from the CCP’s stance.” The document says that “the PRC does not abide by core principles of academic research, including openness, transparency, reciprocity, and meritocracy” when collaborating with US researchers.
The fear can be subtle but pervasive, discouraging scholars from exploring certain topics. A report from the Wilson Center says:
Other faculty, particularly those working on ethnic borderlands issues, cited the safety of their research subjects as their primary concern. “I don’t really think it’s appropriate for me to indulge my capacity to say whatever I want to when it can come at the cost of people that I’ve been trying to help,” said a faculty member who works on Tibet at a Research 1 university on the East Coast.159 University of Montana faculty member Eric Schluessel, who works on Xinjiang, said he always has to think about the political consequences his research might have for his contacts.160 “That presence always shapes what I do to some degree,” Schluessel said. “I know that if I say certain things, if I write certain things, it’s not so much that it can affect me, but it can affect people I know in China.”
Students generally aren’t aware that all this is happening, but they’re bound to absorb the notion that criticizing the government of China is a bad idea. They have other things to think about, and silence can become a habit or even a virtue. See no evil, hear no evil, speak about no evil.
As I’m writing this, people in China are showing extraordinary courage, protesting in the streets against a regime that doesn’t hesitate to ruin dissenters’ lives. Maybe some students in the USA and Europe will gain some courage from their example and join them in speaking out against Xi’s government.