Chinese activist says he’s being forced out by NYU

NORWAY, Oslo: Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng attends the opening session of the Oslo Freedom Forum on May 13, 2013 in Oslo. The fifth annual Oslo Freedom Forum takes place from May 13 until 15, 2013 with the “world’s most influential dissidents, innovators, journalists, philanthropists, and policymakers”. AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX / BERIT ROALD

BEIJING — Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was allowed to travel to the U.S. after escaping from house arrest, said Monday 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 Monday 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.”

This 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.