In mere decades the nation will look back at these cases against respectable academics as what they truly are: blatant, nonsensical xenophobia.
Academic collaboration is “Chinese ties?” Incredible that these cases are even being sent to trial with 0 evidence of these professors sending any kind of sensitive information to China.
So you don't believe that a country with a long history of stealing technology IP would have spies in the Universities that are doing cutting edge research in those areas?
Why can't journalists use honest titles for their reports? This is simply a story about one single case. The report tries to spin this as if it represents a wide-ranging phenomenon.
Did soviet spies infiltrate American state department and other government agencies during the cold war? Yes. Were there cases of wrong accusations? Yes. But you can't simply point out a case of wrong accusation and deny the wide-ranging infiltration of soviet spies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_espionage_in_the_United...
The wide-ranging of recruiting of U.S. academics by the Chinese government is no secret at all. It is self-evident by the Thousand Talents Plan.
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Talents_Plan ). Many of the involved academics did so secretly and illegally. They are not necessarily "spies", nor were they commonly accused of being "spies". The article created a strawman narrative, and then try to debunk the strawman with a single case, for the whole purpose of creating an xenophobia narrative.
The article is definitely making an emotional appeal here. For the numbers supporting it I recommend looking at the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the China Initiative https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative and you’ll find some appalling figures (like 50% dropped charges on academics so far, which indicates feds are more than willing to bring make arrests and bring charges when they don’t even have a strong case for their allegations, ie witch-hunts against Chinese academics)
> They are not necessarily "spies", nor were they commonly accused of being "spies".
The charges don’t indicate they are spies, but if you read the indictments of e.g. Gang Cheng, it repeatedly accuses him of being loyal to China, which is all but calling him a spy
Indeed, academics have been ensnared by political bullshit. The way I call it is China offered the carrot and USA offered the stick. If you want to work with China, the Chinese government will be more than happy to reward you; if you are caught working with China, USG will be more than happy to throw you into prison and try to ruin your life (even without enough evidence to convict, as in at least half of this cases)
Frankly, I wish I could say we were winning the battle over academia using free speech and anti-authoritarianism, but it appears being anti-China is the best we can do
Regardless of the proportions between truth and exaggeration in this article - today's political climate is becoming like a playground for psychopaths that are willing to push the xenophobia-buttons of the crowd in service of their own purposes.
Articles like these make me formulate various escape plans in my head, even though I'm not Asian. I'm not part of the majority group where I live. What if one day my ethnicity becomes targeted by other people's arrangements of bad reputation? How will I start a new life?
Meh. Americans would call Ronald Reagan a Marxist nowadays. Only a nation without any semblance of actual leftism in its body politic could be so confused.
Also, you appear to be referring obliquely to Cultural Marxism[0], a right-wing conspiracy theory originally created by Nazis linking Western intellectualism and academia to a secret Communist or Marxist agenda. In the context of the linked article, the Trump-era neo-McCarthyist program described, that bogeyman of the Jewish/Marxist academic has been replaced by that of the Chinese operative, with the concern being intellectual property theft, rather than Marxist indoctrination.
It's a thought-provoking article. You should read it and consider providing a substantive comment.
I quote Zizek from the Peterson debate - “Where are these postmodern Marxists?”
The number of universities offering any sort of heterodox economics in the US is in the low tens. As somebody with an economics degree, I’d love for you to prove that the average western university even teaches about Marxism at all.
Most likely, but the explicitly racist China Initiative did a terrible job of catching them, because I surmise the goal was to disrupt legitimate Sino-US education links in general, which in some people's estimation is more significant than catching some spies. Can't really stop PRC from hacking institutional DBs from across the ocean, or transmitting knowledge back via 1000s of research interns, but can certainly dissuade leading educators from participating in PRC thousand talent exchange programs.
[+] [-] usednet|4 years ago|reply
Academic collaboration is “Chinese ties?” Incredible that these cases are even being sent to trial with 0 evidence of these professors sending any kind of sensitive information to China.
[+] [-] Jtype|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] temp8964|4 years ago|reply
Did soviet spies infiltrate American state department and other government agencies during the cold war? Yes. Were there cases of wrong accusations? Yes. But you can't simply point out a case of wrong accusation and deny the wide-ranging infiltration of soviet spies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_espionage_in_the_United...
The wide-ranging of recruiting of U.S. academics by the Chinese government is no secret at all. It is self-evident by the Thousand Talents Plan. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Talents_Plan ). Many of the involved academics did so secretly and illegally. They are not necessarily "spies", nor were they commonly accused of being "spies". The article created a strawman narrative, and then try to debunk the strawman with a single case, for the whole purpose of creating an xenophobia narrative.
[+] [-] helen___keller|4 years ago|reply
> They are not necessarily "spies", nor were they commonly accused of being "spies".
The charges don’t indicate they are spies, but if you read the indictments of e.g. Gang Cheng, it repeatedly accuses him of being loyal to China, which is all but calling him a spy
> The wide-ranging of recruiting of U.S. academics by the Chinese government is no secret at all. It is self-evident by the Thousand Talents Plan. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Talents_Plan ).
Indeed, academics have been ensnared by political bullshit. The way I call it is China offered the carrot and USA offered the stick. If you want to work with China, the Chinese government will be more than happy to reward you; if you are caught working with China, USG will be more than happy to throw you into prison and try to ruin your life (even without enough evidence to convict, as in at least half of this cases)
Frankly, I wish I could say we were winning the battle over academia using free speech and anti-authoritarianism, but it appears being anti-China is the best we can do
[+] [-] acadapter|4 years ago|reply
Articles like these make me formulate various escape plans in my head, even though I'm not Asian. I'm not part of the majority group where I live. What if one day my ethnicity becomes targeted by other people's arrangements of bad reputation? How will I start a new life?
[+] [-] luciusdomitius|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] krapp|4 years ago|reply
Also, you appear to be referring obliquely to Cultural Marxism[0], a right-wing conspiracy theory originally created by Nazis linking Western intellectualism and academia to a secret Communist or Marxist agenda. In the context of the linked article, the Trump-era neo-McCarthyist program described, that bogeyman of the Jewish/Marxist academic has been replaced by that of the Chinese operative, with the concern being intellectual property theft, rather than Marxist indoctrination.
It's a thought-provoking article. You should read it and consider providing a substantive comment.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_th...
[+] [-] usednet|4 years ago|reply
The number of universities offering any sort of heterodox economics in the US is in the low tens. As somebody with an economics degree, I’d love for you to prove that the average western university even teaches about Marxism at all.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] troon-lover|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dirtyid|4 years ago|reply