Why George Washington University Must Oppose Chinese Communist Oppression By Ezra Meyer
It seems like a no-brainer, but on one American campus, critics of a campaign against a tyrannical regime charge racism.
I n early February, posters criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for their subjugation of the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hong Kongers emerged on the campus of George Washington University. The posters, put up anonymously and highlighting the CCP’s reprehensible actions, soon turned controversial.
Student groups complained to university president Mark Wrighton that the posters were offensive and depicted racist caricatures. In a leaked email, Wrighton responded by saying that he too was “personally offended” by the posters. This email received significant press coverage, leading to a statement from Wrigthon in which he clarified his prior ignorance of the posters’ true meaning and reaffirmed his and the university’s commitment to free speech.
Throughout this time, I, along with a number of other students and student groups, have been pressuring the university to divest all of its endowment holdings from companies that enable the CCP’s genocide and persecution of the Uyghur people. Without the exposure of this initial email, we would never have known the extent of the uphill battle we face with the administration.
Universities are supposed to be forums of open and free exchanges of ideas and opinions. On too many campuses across the country, we’re seeing free speech and expression discouraged and even stifled. Well after the intent of the posters was clarified to the student body, critics in the GW Student Association continued to try to ban some of them, alleging that they were offensive and racist. Chinese state media has often used similar language to respond to this incident on my campus.
As an American, I find it not just horrifying to observe but also deeply troubling to think that my university, in the heart of Washington, D.C., and so many others like it across the country are potentially complicit in genocide in Xinjiang Province. As a student, my influence does not necessarily have significant bearing on the foreign policy of the United States, but I can at the very least work to have an impact in my own communities. We’ve organized protests and events as part of this campaign to make our voices heard and to ensure that our own university detaches itself from any involvement it may have with the CCP’s human-rights abuses.
Fortunately, this has been a collaborative effort between College Republicans, College Democrats, and several other student groups. I say this not just so I can drop the Washington buzzword “bipartisan.” What this demonstrates is that this isn’t an issue of party versus party, it is an issue of American values versus anti-American values — of proponents of freedom and personal autonomy versus proponents of oppression, subjugation, and fear. However, this bipartisanship doesn’t necessarily reflect unanimity within the student body.
Recently we held an event with Uyghur activists who shared their stories, including one who escaped a CCP concentration camp, yet I’ve still seen on social media a number of my peers posting denials of the CCP’s actions. I’ve seen claims that the camps are simply for reeducation and developing trade skills and that they are beneficial to the Uyghur people. This is coming from American college students. We’re seeing Chinese Communist Party talking points regurgitated in the discourse on campus and within our own student association.
It’s concerning to me that not only has this issue of Uyghur persecution been ignored by the West for far too long but that some Americans, under the guise of opposing racism, are trying to excuse it or give it a safe haven now that it has been brought more to the light.
The freedoms that groups are being deprived of in China are freedoms we must support universally. We must oppose regimes that deny these freedoms. And here in the United States we must condemn any complicity in academia, which is supposed to train the leaders of tomorrow.
I sincerely hope that our university will carefully examine its endowment and divest from all holdings that in any way support the CCP’s human-rights abuses. We at George Washington University will continue our campaign of educating the student body and pressuring the administration. Hopefully we can become an example for universities across the country to follow suit and divest.
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