The University of North Texas has expelled at least fifteen publicly funded students from China, but the rest of the non-publicly funded Chinese students are not affected. According to Reuters, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday (September 1) that he expects all Confucius Institutes on U.S. university campuses to be closed by the end of the year.
The University of North Texas sent an email earlier announcing the end of its cooperative program with the China Scholarship Council, asking sponsored visiting scholars from China to leave the university and no longer have access to email and online materials. The University’s International Student Services Department later informed them that they could remain in the United States until the end of the month.
The Denton Record-Chronicle, a Texas media outlet, reports that the University of North Texas sent a letter last Wednesday (Aug. 26) informing 15 publicly-funded researchers who received grants from the China Scholarship Council to visit the university that the University of North Texas has ended its relationship with the Foundation’s visiting scholars and has notified the U.S. government that the Chinese scholars’ exchange program has expired and that their “J-1” exchange visitor visas have been revoked effective immediately.
In response to media inquiries, University of North Texas spokesman Jim Berscheidt emphasized that “this decision is limited to the 15 visiting researchers sponsored by this particular organization and does not affect any students enrolled and studying at the University. “The University of North Texas continues to welcome visiting scholars from around the world, including China,”
In the letter, the University of North Texas noted that their access to university e-mail, servers, and other resources has been immediately suspended, and that researchers must be accompanied by a residence hall supervisor if they wish to return to campus to pack up their belongings.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to the incident on Tuesday, criticizing “extreme anti-China forces” in the United States for “stigmatizing Chinese students” and saying that “this is another example of the United States undermining China-U.S. cultural exchanges.
In addition, Pompeo pointed out in an interview with Fox TV on Tuesday that the Chinese government apparently recruits spies at U.S. universities through its funding of Confucius Institutes.
Pompeo’s comments come at a time when relations between the U.S. and China are cooling, with the U.S. concluding that the Chinese government is trying to steal secrets from leading U.S. research institutions and launching the largest crackdown in 40 years on Chinese academics with PLA backgrounds in 25 cities across the U.S. involved in intellectual property theft. Among them, Tang Juan, a cancer researcher at the University of California, Davis, was suspected by the U.S. government of being a secret member of the Chinese military. Tang was charged with visa fraud by U.S. authorities.
Recent Comments