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OCA Condemns Blanket Profiling of Chinese Students and Academics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

12 August 2019

Contact: Thu Nguyen | Communications Manager

202.223.5500 | [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Washington, DC – OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates calls on universities and research institutions to uphold their commitment to academic freedom, condemning the blanket profiling of any faculty, staff, or student based solely on their ethnicity or country of origin.

As investigations of American scientists and professors of Chinese descent across the country ([link removed]) continue through National Institutes of Health (NIH) affiliations, the FBI has expanded its net to American students who have participated in study abroad programs in China ([link removed]) and international students and academics from China now studying and conducting research in American universities.

“It is deeply disturbing that the FBI is now asking for universities to monitor ethnic Chinese academics across the board. This goes against our American values — it is racist and morally wrong to blanket profile any race or ethnicity,” said Rita Pin Ahrens, OCA National Executive Director. “We cannot return to the shameful behaviors of the past, when this country interned Japanese Americans and barred immigration from China through the Chinese Exclusion Act.”

Schools and research facilities are institutions of knowledge, inherently unbiased, and must protect the freedoms and rights of privacy of their students and faculty. In response to the latest report on the expansion of FBI monitoring of academics of Chinese descent, OCA joins 21 organizations ([link removed]) , including the Association of American Colleges & Universities, American Association of University Professors, Association of University Presses, PEN America and others, in condemning this call for the blanket profiling and monitoring of Chinese academics.

OCA urges universities to commit to the value of academic freedom and to stand by their scholars, no matter what ethnicity or race they belong to.

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OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates is a national civil rights organization dedicated to improving the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).

View Statement online here. ([link removed])

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