A panel discussion meant to take a look at a horrifying human rights violation became the occasion for a stunning show of incivility—a breakdown of all values and practices that New York's most prestigious university holds dear. For two hours on Friday afternoon the week before last, the Columbia University community was given a chilling glimpse at one Chinese export America can decidedly do without: hatred.
The event sought to examine the findings of a report, "Bloody Harvest" (http://organharvestinvestigation.net/), authored by two Canadians, the human rights lawyer David Matas and the former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour. This report finds credible the allegations, made initially by this paper, that the Chinese Communist regime is engaging in the widespread, systematic, forced removal of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, something Matas has referred to as "a new form of evil in our time."
The panel was sponsored by the Columbia University Amensty International Chapter and Falun Dafa Club, and featured David Matas, joined by two Chinese medical doctors, Dr. Charles Lee and Dr. Jingduan Yuan.
Defending the Motherland
These three speakers became the latest target of what some refer to as "China's new nationalism," in the form of some 30 Chinese students who came to the panel not to engage in the discussion, but to end it.
The Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CUCSSA), had sent an e-mail to its members the night before, that said "facing this demonization [of China] we cannot hold back!"
In language that could have come straight from the mouth of Chairman Mao some four decades ago, the email further declared, "we will use the sea of red [Chinese] flags, dyed with blood, to strike hard against the [group's] arrogant fervor, and to resolutely defend the honor and dignity of the Motherland!" Physical confrontation is elsewhere indicated in the message—the implied recourse should "Americans" fail to "listen to us."
The students indeed showed up with many large Chinese flags, which campus police prevented them from bringing into the lecture hall, lest the students put into action the e-mail's injunction to "strike hard."
In the aftermath of the bizarre protest—a mix of childishness (chucking paper airplanes at the podium), disruptions, and hate speech in the form of defamatory placards—CUCSSA posted on its website a report on the event. The report declares that CUCSSA students "share bitter hatred of the enemy"—referring to the Falun Dafa Club, whose members do meditative exercises on a small plot of grass on campus each morning.
The article also congratulates the CUCSSA for having "exhibited its formidable cohesive force and combat effectiveness" and "sent a vivid warning to other organizations" that holding similar activities would "only accelerate one's self-destruction!"
The Matrix
According to some scholars, students who grow up in mainland China have difficulty distinguishing between the place or people of China and the one-party regime that tyrannizes it. When I asked a student who took part in the CUCSSA protest if by "China" she meant the communist party, or the people there—it seemed the difference was lost upon her.
From the cradle on up, everything comprising the students' living environment has been carefully engineered by the Party-state. It is an ersatz, Orwellian world if ever there was one, with most everything—from textbooks to toys, television to theater—regulated by communist rulers so as to either boost or maintain their power.
It is an air-tight system that defies all but the occasional, slight puncture. As one friend who grew up in China told me after watching "The Matrix," "That's China." He would go on to watch the film four more times, so unsettling was the realization it sparked.
It is a bizarre world, populated by conjured villains (e.g., landlords), enemies (Japanese), bullies (America), and threats (Falun Gong). Things are inverted here. AIDS activists like 80-year old Dr. Gao Yaojie are labeled "trouble makers" and arrested. Human rights attorneys who try to reign in corrupt officials and uphold the law, such as Gao Zhisheng, are charged with "subversion" of state power. Activists, like the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, are arrested and beaten for documenting things like forced sterilization and abortion campaigns. And of course, the peaceful Falun Gong meditators are portrayed by the state-run press as "disruptive" and "dangerous," and tortured to death.
Keeping Minds Closed
The freedom offered by the United States unfortunately often does not have much effect on students whose minds have been so thoroughly closed by the Chinese regime.
This is not accidental. CUCSSA lists on its Web site an advisory committee comprised solely of two Chinese consulate staff members. Rumors on campus are that the Consulate funds the CUCSSA generously.
What happens at Columbia is typical. Upon a student's arrival, the Chinese consulate, or an organization controlled by it, quickly swoops in. For example, an incoming student will be greeted at the airport, quickly bringing him or her into the fold of a very like-minded community from which some never venture.
One young Chinese man whom I know, didn't know what a "sandwich" or "Kleenex" was, despite having lived in the U.S. over ten years and having attended Columbia.
The Consulate orchestrates a virtual reality on campus as it were, complete with social events, career advising, shopping trips, and of course, a host of occasions to help you remember how to "think" while on dangerous soil.
CUCSSA students I have spoken with on campus, I find, often do not read newspapers published in the free world. "They're all anti-China," one student confidently explained.
Not surprisingly, some Chinese students eagerly clamor for leadership positions in organizations like CUCSSA, knowing well the privileges tied to obedient performance; after a term as president, a plush job is as good as guaranteed. There is an intoxicating element of power I observe. These leaders, endorsed and guided by the largest political regime in the world, get to tell students what they (or "we") should think and do. A sense of impunity naturally follows.
Loss and Damage
The panel who appeared at Columbia to discuss organ harvesting also recently appeared at similar forums at Carnegie-Mellon and Princeton University. At these institutions the panelists also faced organized attempts by Chinese students to defame Falun Gong. These incidents follow upon years of incidents in which individuals have acted here in the U.S. upon the hatred with which the Chinese regime has indoctrinated them.
In response to such incidents, Congress passed Resolution 304 in October, 2004, calling on the Attorney General to investigate and order P.R.C. officials to "immediately stop interfering in the exercise of religious and political freedoms within the United States" or face possible legal repercussions.
The Chinese students at Columbia who showed up intending to disrupt a panel discussion are themselves victims. They are locked inside the Chinese regime's matrix, battling imaginary foes, and losing the chance to discover the joys and challenges of freedom. At the same time, their ignorant and prejudiced actions damage our free institutions.
Fundamental to the idea of a university are the principles of civility, tolerance, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of discussion. As a friend and alumnus of Columbia University, I hope it will vigorously defend these principles. The health of Columbia demands it. Moreover, teaching respect for free institutions to those who have none, would benefit them, and such an education is very well the most important thing such students could take away from their stay at Columbia.
Gerard Smith (penname) is a graduate of Columbia University who lives and works in New York.
Feeds