{"id":169213,"date":"2014-02-18T17:09:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T01:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=169213"},"modified":"2014-02-18T17:40:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T01:40:07","slug":"harvard-editorial-vouches-continued-china-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/02\/harvard-editorial-vouches-continued-china-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard Editorial Vouches For Continued China Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"
The firing of politically active professor Xia Yeliang<\/a>\u00a0from Peking University last October\u00a0sparked much\u00a0controversy<\/a> and concern about the future of academic exchanges<\/a> between China and the United States. In light of this controversy,\u00a0The Harvard Crimson editorial board has now\u00a0voiced support\u00a0for the university’s continued but cautious\u00a0engagement with China<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n It is no secret that Harvard maintains close relationships with China and Chinese universities. Yet the recent dismissal of former economics professor and\u00a0dissident\u00a0<\/a>Xia Yeliang from Peking University has caused American universities like\u00a0Wellesley<\/a>\u00a0and Stanford to question ties with Beijing in the face of differing views on academic freedom. While Harvard\u2019s ties with China are essential to a globalized education, Harvard should stand up for academic freedom and structure its partnerships with foreign universities carefully.<\/p>\n While Peking University has claimed that its\u00a0decision<\/a>\u00a0to terminate Xia Yeliang\u2019s position can be purely attributed to academic and not political reasons, there is strong reason to suspect that Xia\u2019s outspoken and liberal politics played a role in his dismissal. Xia helped draft Charter 08, which called for major pro-democratic change. The petition\u2019s primary author is another persecuted scholar-dissident\u2014Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo. \u00a0And heightened state attention in the lead-up to Xia\u2019s firing coincided with a political social media push from Xia abroad in the U.S. As he transitions to a new position at the Cato Institute, American universities are faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to react against Peking University and China\u2019s free speech restrictions by terminating partnerships. Harvard, as of yet, has not\u2014and should not.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0Partnerships with China, a mutually advantageous relationship for China\u2019s economy and for global-minded students, offer benefits that Harvard cannot pass up. Cutting ties will solve little\u2014but will isolate academic populations and curb the longer-term idea exchange that fosters real progress. Still, in the wake of Xia\u2019s dismissal, we must proceed with heightened awareness for the academic values Harvard as an institution stands for. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The editorial comes as Brigham and Women’s hospital is “considering a proposal from real estate billionaire Hui Ka Yan to become the first Harvard-University affiliated hospital to expand to\u00a0China<\/a>.<\/strong>” Bloomberg reports: \u201cHarvard as the world\u2019s most famous school and Evergrande as a global leading enterprise, the future cooperation of us would be full of all kinds of possibilities,\u201d Hui said in a speech, according to the release. \u201cExchanges and cooperation of us would promote the world\u2019s academic level and progress and development of human society continually.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later, on Dec. 4, Evergrande published another\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0describing an agreement with Harvard that was reached on Dec. 2 to establish a hospital. The statement, which refers to \u201cHarvard Brigham Hospital,\u201d is accompanied by photos of Brigham and Women\u2019s President Elizabeth Nabel.<\/p>\n \u201cHarvard University<\/a>\u00a0and Evergrande Group jointly declared their formal signing of cooperation agreement,\u201d according to the company\u2019s statement. \u201cToday, a major cooperation project is publicized: Harvard will set up Harvard hospital with Evergrande in China. The two parties have reached substantial cooperation results, and is currently at the stage of choosing location for it.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonough, the Brigham and Women\u2019s spokeswoman, wouldn\u2019t confirm that an agreement has been completed, and said Nabel hasn\u2019t been to China to pursue the matter. While the hospital has spoken to consultants about the plan, none have been hired, she said. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While many American college professors have remained silent about exchanges with China in the face of alleged violations of academic freedom, others like retired academic Steven Levine have spearheaded a “massive letter-writing campaign” to memorialize the events of June Fourth for the upcoming 25th anniversary this year.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The firing of politically active professor Xia Yeliang\u00a0from Peking University last October\u00a0sparked much\u00a0controversy and concern about the future of academic exchanges between China and the United States. In light of this controversy,\u00a0The Harvard Crimson editorial board has now\u00a0voiced support\u00a0for the university’s continued but cautious\u00a0engagement with China: It is no secret that Harvard maintains close relationships […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":169221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[4040,2815,1829,227,2248,5233,146,5900,16323],"class_list":["post-169213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-academic-corruption","tag-academic-ethics","tag-academic-freedom","tag-education","tag-education-corruption","tag-educational-exchange","tag-harvard","tag-june-4th","tag-xia-yeliang","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
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