(TibetanReview.net, Jul04’24) – The US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has on Jul 1 launched a probe into Harvard University’s handling of an anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) protest during a speech by Chinese Ambassador to the United States Mr Xie Feng at the Harvard Kennedy School in April, reported thecrimson.com Jul 2. It had led to one protester being dragged out and three others escorted out by university police.
The protest was carried out by a group called Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP and prominently raised the Tibetan flag and “Free Tibet” and other slogans.
Chairman John R Moolenaar (R-Mich.) wrote in a four-page letter to interim Harvard President Alan M Garber that the protest — which resulted in the forcible removal of several protesters — raised concerns over whether Harvard is doing enough to “ensure students’ safety for freedom of expression,” the report said.
“This incident raises serious questions regarding possible transnational repression by the Chinese government and the involvement of international students from China at Harvard in acts of harassment and intimidation condoned by the Chinese government against its critics,” Moolenaar has written.
He has added that Harvard should be expected to “push back against any foreign government efforts to silence their critics on campus.”
The university has declined to comment so far.
The Xie event was organized by the Kennedy School’s Greater China Society as part of its two-day Greater China Conference. As Xie delivered opening remarks, six protesters affiliated with Students for a Free Tibet and Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP interrupted him by shouting and holding Tibetan flags and banners that criticized China.
The report further said that while three of the protesters were escorted from the event by Harvard University Police Department officers, Cosette T Wu, the first person to interrupt the event, was dragged out by an individual she later identified as a Harvard student who had co-organized Feng’s visit.
Moolenaar has said the incident could “constitute assault and battery under Massachusetts law” and inquired whether Harvard had taken action against the individual or notified local law enforcement of the incident.
He has called the incident a part of a trend “involving some students from China infringing on their fellow students’ freedom of expression,” citing a Berklee College of Music student who was sentenced last month for harassing a fellow Chinese student for their pro-democracy activism on campus.
He has demanded to know what action the University had taken against the protesters, four of whom were current or former Harvard students.
Moolenaar has also sought to know whether the Greater China Society, which organized the Xie event, coordinates “its activities with the Chinese government or the Chinese diplomatic missions.”
This is because the letter from the Select Committee has alleged that before ceasing operations, the China Society group was affiliated with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, an organization that has been criticized for its ties to the CCP and its efforts to censor anti-China dialogue on university campuses in the US.
The committee has noted that the Greater China Society shares the same logo as its older CSSA counterpart and asked Harvard to describe any ties between the two organizations.