Paving the Way Forward Through Underhanded Tactics
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CounterCurrent:
China Threatens Hostage Diplomacy
Paving the Way Forward Through Underhanded Tactics
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: China; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Article - Of Hostage Diplomacy and History: China and American Political Polarization by Bradley J. Murg ([link removed][UNIQID])
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As American education, law enforcement, and congressional leadership become more aggressive in curbing Chinese government influence in U.S. colleges and universities, a corresponding backlash has ensued. Some of these responses have been rather predictable: investigating suspected CCP spies is racist ([link removed][UNIQID]) , closing Confucius Institutes impedes “honest cultural exchange,” ([link removed][UNIQID]) and America, not China, is instigating tensions with a “Cold War mentality.” ([link removed][UNIQID])
All of these criticisms ignore the simple fact that the CCP continues to (1) propagandize countless students ([link removed][UNIQID]) through Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms and (2) engage in wholesale research theft ([link removed][UNIQID]) through the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) and other so-called “talent-recruitment programs.” It has done so for well over a decade and only benefits from many American leaders’ continual naivete—or blissful ignorance—of the true extent of the problem.
Those that do recognize this pressing danger are sounding the alarm ([link removed][UNIQID]) , and in some cases, making arrests ([link removed][UNIQID]) . They realize that no amount of “research collaboration” or “cultural exchange” is worth opening our doors to rampant communist propaganda, research theft, and dark money. We are beginning to restore transparency and academic integrity in American higher education, and China isn’t happy to see its knots of influence unravelled.
Case in point: over the weekend, Chinese government officials warned that it may begin detaining Americans as retaliation for U.S. actions against Chinese influence, reports ([link removed][UNIQID]) the Wall Street Journal. Their crime? The CCP will figure that part out. As Kate O’Keeffe and Aruna Viswanatha write, “The Chinese message, the people said, has been blunt: The U.S. should drop prosecutions of the Chinese scholars in American courts, or Americans in China might find themselves in violation of Chinese law.”
The CCP is no stranger to hostage diplomacy, a practice that is much more indicative of a “Cold War mentality” of which American officials are accused. In this week’s featured article ([link removed][UNIQID]) , Bradley J. Murg of The Diplomat argues that this strategy will likely hurt, not help, Beijing in the long run. He writes,
It has been argued that Beijing views the United States as weak and hopelessly divided – opening space for China to assume a commanding role on the global stage. Ironically, targeting Americans in a further expansion of hostage diplomacy could very well achieve the exact opposite: a more unified U.S. (albeit one with substantial domestic political disagreements) and a new White House locked into an ever more aggressive containment strategy.
China has officially upped the ante, and it’s now our turn to respond. Will a new White House pursue this “aggressive containment strategy” as Murg predicts? Or will we allow these threats to intimidate us into silence and inaction? Much is at stake and time is of the essence.
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on Chinese influence in American higher education:
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October 13, 2020
** ED and DOS Issue Urgent Warning About Chinese Influence in American Schools ([link removed][UNIQID])
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National Association of Scholars
NAS commends the Education and State Depts. for issuing two joint letters urging American education leaders to investigate possible Chinese government influence in their schools.
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August 28, 2020
** Cracking Down on Illegal Ties to China ([link removed][UNIQID])
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John David
We’re tracking American professors, higher ed administrators, students, and government researchers who have been investigated or charged for illegal ties to China.
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August 24, 2020
** An Important Step in the Fight to Ban Chinese Confucius Institutes ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Rachelle Peterson
Alabama state representative Tommy Hanes has unveiled a draft proposal to ban Confucius Institutes outright, a model we encourage legislators in the rest of the U.S. to follow.
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July 23, 2020
** China is Rebranding Its Confucius Institutes ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Rachelle Peterson
In response to national criticism of Confucius Institutes, China plans to obscure their operations by renaming the Hanban and spreading out oversight across several organizations.
** About the NAS
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