Blind activist says he’s being forced out by NYU

[Snomannen]

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was allowed to travel to the U.S. after escaping from house arrest, said yesterday that New York University is forcing him and his family to leave at the end of this month because of pressure from the Chinese government. The university denied Chen’s allegations.
Chen said in a statement that China’s Communist Party had been applying “great, unrelenting pressure” on NYU to ask him to leave, though he did not provide details or evidence to back his claim. Chen said Beijing’s authoritarian government has more influence on the American academic community than is perceived.
“The work of the Chinese Communists within academic circles in the United States is far greater than what people imagine, and some scholars have no option but to hold themselves back,” he said. “Academic independence and academic freedom in the United States are being greatly threatened by a totalitarian regime.”
NYU officials called Chen’s account puzzling, saying that his fellowship was meant to be a one-year position and had simply concluded as planned, and that school officials have been talking with him for months about what his next step might be.
Chen sparked a diplomatic crisis between China and the U.S. last year when he fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from house arrest. Since last May, he’d been a special student at NYU’s U.S.-Asia Law institute. He has been working on a book due out later this year.
NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a statement yesyerday that the conclusion of Chen’s fellowship had nothing to do with the Chinese government.
“We are very discouraged to learn of Mr. Chen’s statement, which contains a number of speculations about the role of the Chinese government in NYU’s decision-making that are both false and contradicted by the well-established facts,” Beckman said.
Beckman said that even before Chen’s family’s arrival in the States the fellowship he was to take at the university was discussed as a one-year position.
“NYU believes it has been generous in supporting this family, and we are puzzled and saddened to see these false claims directed at us,” Beckman said.
The dissident said that as early as last August and September, three to four months after his family had arrived in the United States, NYU was already discussing their departure.
Beckman responded that the university began talking to the Chens “not because of some fictional ‘pressure’ from China, but so that they could use the months to make their transition a smooth one.”
NYU said Chen has two offers for new institutional affiliations. Earlier, a spokesman for New York-based Fordham University confirmed that Chen was negotiating with Fordham Law School’s Leitner Center but said he didn’t know what kind of position was being discussed.
The incident has highlighted the potential public relations benefits and risks that American universities face in engaging Chinese dissidents at a time when many are trying to expand in China and Chinese students are an increasingly important source of tuition income for colleges.
Chinese students form the largest population of foreign students at American universities, with nearly 200,000 this year, up 25 percent since last year — and they often pay full tuition.
NYU raised its profile and earned itself goodwill by offering a fellowship to Chen as a solution to last year’s diplomatic crisis. Beckman said the university provided housing, food, health care and insurance, special law tutorials, translation services, English lessons and connections to a publisher. To help him pursue his advocacy, Chen was also invited to speak at many events facilitated by the school, Beckman said.
However, the university’s association with such a prominent dissident has brought greater scrutiny of the university’s engagement with China. A U.S. newspaper, the New York Post, had earlier reported that NYU’s decision was related to the university’s development of a campus in Shanghai, though the university rejected the claim.
NYU has said that its new campus in China’s financial capital will be a degree-granting, liberal arts and science college, with classes scheduled to begin this fall. Its partners are a Chinese university, the Shanghai city education commission and the government of the city’s Pudong district.
Bob Fu, a U.S.-based rights activist and one of Chen’s key supporters, said U.S. academic institutions may shun outspoken Chinese dissidents on their own initiative due to growing economic interest in China. But, he said, in doing so they risk hurting their reputations as being havens for free speech that make them attractive to young Chinese who don’t experience those and other freedoms at home.
“U.S. universities are out chasing the China dollar and are very reluctant to work with dissidents who have a strong voice in China,” said Fu, president of the Texas-based rights group ChinaAid. “It does not always have to be direct pressure from Beijing, there is also self-censorship, particularly if a college President believes their China campus or the future enrollment of Chinese students will be sabotaged.” AP



http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/china/44647-blind-activist-says-he’s-being-forced-out-by-nyu.html

PS: I found his face interesting so I post it more.

 

[longyi]

He's just a loud motor mouth and used as a tool by some groups to undermine China's human right images. Very soon nobody will listen to him anymore.

 

[cnleio]

Leave from China so easily, but go home very hard.

 

[Fsjal]

I still have pity for him since he is blind.

 

[darkhero]

He's just a loud motor mouth and used as a tool by some groups to undermine China's human right images. Very soon nobody will listen to him anymore.

Yes. This is the hypocritical side of US.

But, he is talking the facts in China.

 

[HongWu]

LOL now the blind begger is somebody else's problem. China has the last laugh

 

[Snomannen]

This guys is nothing different from those 'students' leaders'.
"Too simple too ignorance".

 

[grandmaster]

it is because of himself. he thought America is heaven and is nice. now see, when he has no value for being utilized, he gets deported.

 

[soaringeagle]

Never liked this guy.
He should whine less and study more.

 

[gpit]

Jerome Cohen on Chen Guangcheng: 'You Shouldn't Bite the Hand That Feeds You'

In May 2012, Jerome Cohen, a professor of law at New York University, advised blind activist Chen Guangcheng on his negotiations with the United States and Chinese government, which ultimately resulted in Chen accepting an offer to be a visiting fellow at NYU law school.

Now Chen's saga has taken another dramatic turn. On Thursday, the New York Post ran a story claiming that the university had "booted" the dissident in the face of pressure from the Chinese government over the school's construction of a controversial branch in Shanghai. And on Sunday night, Chen stated that NYU did indeed urge him to leave (a claim that NYU denies). "As early as late August and September, the Chinese Communists had already begun to apply great, unrelenting pressure on New York University," he wrote. "So much so that after we had been in the United States just three to four months, NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with us."

In a phone interview with Foreign Policy on Monday, Cohen disputed Chen's statement and the Post's report. The interview is below, edited and condensed for clarity.

Foreign Policy: Is there any connection between NYU Shanghai and Chen Guangcheng?

Jerome Cohen: We've tried to keep it quite separate. I have not been involved in setting up the Shanghai campus -- it was easy for me, therefore, to take on the Chen thing.

The irony of this whole thing is that I share a concern of [the Chinese government interfering in institutions] outside of China, but I always try to do it on the basis of evidence and facts. What concerns me here is that the New York Post, or something that Congressman Christopher Smith says, or NYU faculty opposed to [NYU President John] Sexton who don't have anything to do with China, or Chen's statement, no one has given one fact [to show that] Chen has been restricted or not done much at NYU. It's all nonsense!

You shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you. NYU has been extraordinarily generous to the Chens, and I've been grateful for the support.

FP: Why did Chen release a statement saying that NYU asked him to leave?

JC: I asked him to issue this statement [to express his views on what happened]. That said, he's a special person, and he bears a certain resentment. He's obviously being guided by people who have a different point of view than my own, and maybe they have information that I don't have.

FP: What are your thoughts on NYU's position in China?

JC: I might have advised them to go slower, or not go at all. This is an especially tough time in China right now. And the fact is [the university has] done it, and they've been careful, and it's proceeded, and I don't know how it's going to work out.

You have to give them a lot of credit. Sexton could have said I don't want to touch this thing. But they did. Of course, NYU, having established the branch complex in Shanghai, doesn't want to take promiscuous risks.

But I hate malicious gossip. People just say things, they talk. It's very unfortunate. If I had seen a basis for [NYU restricting Chen] at all, I would have been the first to raise the alarm.

FP: Would you call Chen mercurial?

JC: Chen is not a two-week wonder. We've had cases of great people who come here and they're just gone in a short time -- they have no clue on how to deal with a different society. Chen is unique and we have tried hard to keep him unique. I don't know what will happen after this -- it could hurt him with some people -- but he has to learn that there are consequences of free speech. You can say anything in America, but you have to learn that it can come back and bite you.

My goal was to give him a year, one year in American life -- what groups he wants to work with, and what groups he wants to avoid. I didn't want him to get involved in the U.S. election and get used by one side or another. Now that that's over, I figure increasingly he's on his own -- and he's certainly taken part in all sorts of activities and had a widely busy schedule, making his own choices -- and that's alright with me. He's a big boy!

I just felt in the early months so many people were trying to trick him and exploit him, and that he needed a few months to get on his feet.

FP: Chen is in talks with other U.S. institutions -- what do you think is next for him?

JC: I don't see any realistic prospect of [him] going back to China soon, and certainly the statements he's been making cannot be helpful.

There is also the problem of his nephew locked up in China, and the rest of his family locked up back there. Recently, the application for passports for Chen's older brother and their mother were suddenly approved. We don't know why that's the case, but maybe that's a sign that the central government is suddenly coming to its senses.

When he came to the United States, it wasn't clear that Chen was going to be a dissident. His whole appeal was for the Chinese government to live up to its law -- not [to] overthrow the government. But what they've done this year is turned him into a dissident by mistreating his family -- and it's gotten worse recently. I'm not a professional anti-communist, but it's sad. I hate to see Chen driven by the persecution of his family.

Jerome Cohen on Chen Guangcheng: 'You Shouldn't Bite the Hand That Feeds You' | FP Passport

 

[huskie]

He is not abandoned by US. He is not even abandoned by NYU. NYU has a very specific agreement with him which he knew and agreed from the very beginning. He is simply so full of himself that he chose to bite the hands that feed him, in order to promote his new book, and get better publicity, and eventually more funding. I think he needs to apologize to Professor Cohen and NYU.

 

[zxmint]

He is not abandoned by US. He is not even abandoned by NYU. NYU has a very specific agreement with him which he knew and agreed from the very beginning. He is simply so full of himself that he chose to bite the hands that feed him, in order to promote his new book, and get better publicity, and eventually more funding. I think he needs to apologize to Professor Cohen and NYU.

"bite the hands that feed him". I like these words. Anyway, Chen's behavior shed light on his own morallity

 

[MeshFree]

He is not abandoned by US. He is not even abandoned by NYU. NYU has a very specific agreement with him which he knew and agreed from the very beginning. He is simply so full of himself that he chose to bite the hands that feed him, in order to promote his new book, and get better publicity, and eventually more funding. I think he needs to apologize to Professor Cohen and NYU.

"Bite the hands that feed him". Very good statement. This statement explains everything. Poor dog, you master is so arrogant. Be careful.