The New Art of War-China's Deep Strategy Inside the United States by William Holstein

Author:William Holstein
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Chinese diplomats based in the United States do make direct approaches to American universities in an effort to discourage events or speakers that stray from the official Communist Party line, according to a 2018 report from the highly respected Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.[3] The center, chartered by Congress as the official memorial to President Woodrow Wilson, is a key nonpartisan policy forum. Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic authored the study and conducted interviews with more than 180 people to talk about events of the two previous decades.

Aside from its embassy in Washington, the Chinese government maintains consulates in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston, putting its diplomats in easy reach of many top universities. They presumably learn about campus events from Chinese students or professors. “PRC diplomats have, since at least the early 1990s, made official expressions of displeasure to American universities for hosting certain speakers and events,” the report said.

It added: “The findings suggest a worrisome trend in which faculty, students, administrators, and staff across a range of disciplines within American universities are encountering pressure to align their academic activities with PRC political preferences. Such pressure may limit critical discourse about China on campus, harming the learning environment for other students from the PRC, the United States, and third countries. If the infringements associated with PRC actors become widespread, faculty, students, administrators, and staff in the United States may find themselves acclimatizing to the PRC’s domestic censorship standards.” In other words, China’s diplomats—so far, in a limited number of cases—are seeking to impose the same type of censorship that the party-state uses back in China.

How to respond remains controversial. The Wilson Center report suggests the possibility of expelling Chinese diplomats who interfere in academic affairs. But Barnett said the Chinese party-state’s efforts are to be expected. “We shouldn’t be attacking China for trying to exert its influence. That’s what governments are paid to do, what their diplomats do,” Barnett argued. “The question is whether China is effective in subverting the basic principles of academic life. The question is whether we have resistance to it.”

In some ways, Chinese authorities seem to place a higher emphasis on American universities than America’s own political leaders do. I asked Nathan why. “Our universities are the best in the world still,” he explained. “The whole STEM part of it is very important in terms of sending students and visiting scholars over here to just learn and go back with those skills and to some extent steal technology.”

The Chinese also have a tradition of respect for intellectuals. “They believe that professors have substantial influence over government policy,” Nathan continued. “I guess we have some influence. I feel in my own case by teaching and seeing my students go on to be in the government and through occasional consultations in Washington, through my media work or non-profit work, I am a voice on policy. I know a lot of people in the government. But I don’t think we’re quite as important as they (the Chinese government) think we are.

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