Category: China, Foreign Influence, Higher Education;
Reading Time: ~5 minutes
Sometimes the zeitgeist of a tumultuous era is concentrated in a single place. At the opening of this school year, Columbia University is managing to combine the blights of Chinese Communist influence, anti-Semitism, incompetent leadership, and intellectual disintegration by the first day of class. Columbia combines the worst aspects of higher education at one time and place. This whirlwind of incompetence and foreign influence provides revisionist powers such as Russia, China, and Iran the air to proclaim and act on their anti-American narratives.
In 2021, authorities in India began investigating a media portal company called Newsclick over suspected money laundering and ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When the company’s offices were searched, India discovered emails between Newsclick and the CCP, and alleged that monies flowed to Newsclick from an American businessman and an alleged Chinese influence agent named Neville Singham. India was concerned that China used the company to build a “media narrative” supportive of Beijing while the two nations fought hand-to-hand battles in the Himalayas around the disputed territory of Ladakh and Tibet.
Last year, the Daily Beast reported that Singham funded “International People’s Media Network” news agencies. The Daily Beast stated that the International People’s Media Network includes news outlets replete with pro-Russian influencers from propaganda outlets like Radio Sputnik, and RT America. The media network was noted as working with the think tank Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, run by Dr. Vijay Prashad, who has defended China’s treatment of the Uighurs. The Daily Beast reported that Prashad and the pro-Russia and pro-China media outlets met at East China Normal University to speak to representatives from Venezuela, Iran, and Russia to underscore a need to “challenge the predominance of U.S., Japanese, and European outlets.” Singham lives in Shanghai and has worked for Huawei.
Back at Columbia University, the New York Post ran a story late last month on Singham’s “cadre of operatives” at the college. According to the Post, Singham helped fund several leftwing nonprofits after selling his company, ThoughtWorks, for $785 million in 2017. These groups included the communist group People’s Forum in Midtown, who helped organize anti-Israel protests on campus following the Hamas attack on October 7. Individuals tied to Columbia’s Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice were beneficiaries of this support. Kairos’ “Poor People’s Campaign” is an academic center devoted to “building a movement to end poverty, led by the poor.” The Post described Kairos as supporting the “People’s Church of the Poor,” which hosted anti-Israel House member Cori Bush (D-MO).
The leftwing group, CODEPINK, was founded by Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans. CODEPINK’s website describes itself as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. While the IRS explicitly states that such organizations are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” CODEPINK happily recounts its “disruption” of the 2016 Republican National Convention. It was also part of the “Women’s March” and “Pussy Hat Project” to protest the inauguration of President Trump.
The Jerusalem Post further found that Singham and Evans connected groups such as the Shut it Down For Palestine Coalition, the Answer Coalition, the People’s Forum, and the International People’s Forum. At Columbia University in April, New York’s chapter of the People’s Forum and the Answer Coalition coordinated the campus’ “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Columbia’s protests were special, as the campus protestors not only commandeered the school’s Hamilton Hall, but also allegedly mistreated the university’s custodial staff during the takeover. When the custodial staff’s union, the Transport Workers Union, confronted Columbia’s administration about the incident, it stated, “Columbia cannot be relied upon to protect their blue collar workers.” The irony writes itself.
The Oxford Dictionary defines “zeitgeist” as the “defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.” If the chaos at Columbia shows anything, it is that the emerging global conflict between the West and hostile powers like China, Russia, and Iran are not only connected, but that academia is part of a broader political strategy to undermine American social cohesion. The fact that Columbia’s committed Marxists are reliant upon the largesse of millionaires and empower protestors to intimidate real working people only highlights that irony and hypocrisy are oxygen to a movement that ultimately stands for nothing but power.
Few policymakers or media pundits are connecting the war in Gaza with the one in Ukraine, or with China's increasing influence within America's borders. Worse, American universities receive a free pass from the press and politicians for endangering the security of America and our allies. China is instrumental to the sanctions-evading programs of Iran and Russia, and has benefited greatly from discounted oil in return. Iran has sent ballistic missiles to Russia, supported Hamas, and has backed campus protests. And yet, American universities continue to accept payments from these regimes, partner with them, and host their “cultural centers” and proxies. Our universities, particularly those deemed “Ivy League,” should know better. Originally founded as King’s College in 1754, Columbia’s history includes figures such as John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence—Robert Livingston. Columbia University lost wisdom long ago, and whatever role it played in the country’s founding, it is now involved in the country’s undoing.
Until next week.
Ian Oxnevad
Senior Fellow for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies
National Association of Scholars
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