A House select committee focused on China is seeking answers from Harvard University regarding an incident that occurred on campus in April. During a protest against a speech by China’s ambassador to the United States, students were forcibly removed.
In a letter to interim Harvard University President Alan Garber on July 1, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), expressed concerns that the incident could be linked to the CCP’s attempts to silence dissenters beyond its borders.
The letter raised questions about potential transnational repression by the Chinese government and the involvement of international students from China at Harvard in acts of harassment and intimidation sanctioned by the Chinese government against its critics.
Harvard University was asked to respond to 13 questions, including inquiries about collaboration with Chinese government representatives on event security, outreach to student protesters, disciplinary investigations, and monitoring of foreign-government-backed student organizations.
The letter emphasized the importance of universities upholding freedom of expression and resisting foreign government pressures to silence dissent on campus.
Mr. Moolenaar requested Harvard University to provide responses to the questions by July 26 and conduct a briefing for the committee on the incident.
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Harvard University did not respond to a request for comment. The incident involved disruptions during a speech by Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng at Harvard Kennedy School’s China Conference, organized by the Greater China Society.
During the speech, Mr. Xie was interrupted by six students and activists. Ms. Cosette Wu, a Taiwanese American student and co-director of the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP, was among those removed from the event for protesting against Chinese human rights abuses.
A video showed Ms. Wu protesting before being escorted out by a person identified as a Harvard student from China. Another student, Ms. Tsering Yangchen, co-president of the Boston chapter of Students for a Free Tibet, was also removed.
Ms. Yangchen reported being approached and intimidated by a Chinese student who she believed was one of the event organizers.
In a statement released in April, Ms. Yangchen highlighted the ongoing genocide in Tibet and her duty to expose the truth about China’s actions.
Mr. Moolenaar also referenced a case involving a former Chinese student from Berklee College of Music sentenced for threatening a pro-democracy activist. The letter mentioned Amnesty International’s report on the CCP’s suppression of Chinese students studying abroad.
The committee previously issued a memo warning about the CCP’s united front work and its negative impact on U.S. interests through various tactics.
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