Student Union
Chinese Law Professor Fired for Views Receives Harvard Job Offer
Outspoken Chinese legal scholar Xu Zhangrun has received an invitation from Harvard University to be a researcher at the school's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies (FCCS), weeks after being fired by his former employer, Tsinghua University, for articles critical of President Xi Jinping.
According to friends, Xu received an unofficial invitation from Harvard on August 7; on August 13 he received an official FCCS offer letter as an associate in research for the 2020-21 school year.
"We have much respect for Professor Xu's academic work," James Evans, the center's communications officer, told VOA's Mandarin service via email. "We thought it appropriate to make a gesture of support in light of recent developments, and therefore invited him to apply for an affiliation with us."
While the associate-in-research affiliation is ordinarily granted in response to a request by the scholar, Evans said FCCS found "it would be an effective way to express support for Prof. Xu in a timely fashion."
Xu wrote back to the center on Wednesday, thanking FCCS for the offer, saying it was "a substantive appointment that addresses the very core of my interests."
Just days ago, Xu received the Notice for Unemployed Individual from his former employer, the prestigious Tsinghua University, officially finalizing termination of his contract. In addition to writing critical articles, Xu was detained for a week in early July on charges of soliciting prostitutes in the southwestern city of Chengdu last year, which he denied.
Xu, who was barred from leaving China, had taught at Tsinghua University's law school for over two decades. In a series of articles published over the past few years, Xu has harshly criticized Xi, accusing him of moving toward authoritarianism since coming to power in 2012 and blaming him for China's political, economic and cultural setbacks.
Observers cheer Harvard
Professor Jerome Cohen, founder of New York University's U.S.-Asia Law Institute, called Harvard's invitation to Xu "a brilliant move" that raises the question of whether other research organizations should also extend invitations to rights activists in China.
"I have long thought that I should limit my contacts with distinguished human rights people in China, because it might add to their problems," Cohen told VOA Mandarin.
"But I see now, perhaps we should take the opposite approach and we should be inviting many of the great people in China who are oppressed or restricted in their activities to be associated with our research institutes," he said. "I see what it has done for Professor Xu. He has put out a wonderful, extremely interesting essay in response to the honor Harvard extended to him. It is obviously a psychic income. It has given him greater resistance and greater strides in his struggle against oppression."
Boston University political scientist Joseph Fewsmith, also an FCCS researcher, told VOA the Harvard center has a history of providing shelter for oppressed scholars, and that he welcomes Xu's arrival.
Chinese legal scholar Yu Ping said the move shows that Harvard's relationship with Beijing is evolving.
"They stood up to the CCP at such a critical moment, I think it shows their dissatisfaction with CCP's punishment towards Xu," he told VOA. In the past, he said, FCCS was sometimes reluctant to engage in political debates that could disrupt its relationship with Beijing, and the public support for Xu shows "a change of attitude."
Yet Lu Nan, a U.S.-based political commentator who is friends with Xu, said the Beijing authorities will not allow Xu to leave the country.
"I am 100% sure Xu's freedom of movement will be controlled," Lu told VOA. "Xu knows this — he can't physically leave China."
Recently, many liberal scholars have been forbidden to leave China. In 2018, Hong Sheng, director of the liberal think tank Unirule Institute of Economics, was told at the airport that he was not allowed to leave China to attend a conference in the U.S. on China's economic reform. The reason given to him was that the trip "threatens China's national security."
Lu added that he expects Xu will not give in to the authorities and is prepared for further persecution.
This story originated in VOA's Mandarin service.
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U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
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While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
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"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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