Student Union
Chinese Students Say Free Speech in US Chilled by China
Although Beijing is thousands of miles away, some Chinese students and China-studies professors in the U.S. say they fear the Communist Party is reaching into their classrooms.
Interviewed at a half-dozen U.S. universities, students from the People's Republic of China (PRC) reported self-censoring in class on topics deemed sensitive by the Communist Party -- such as the massive protests in Hong Kong and the status of Taiwan..
"I wouldn't feel safe to speak publicly or under recording," said a PRC graduate student at Georgetown University in Washington.
Chinese students said they were concerned about being watched by fellow Chinese students. One student said he feared it would negatively impact his family back in China, his future, and his visa.
"For me, I will go back to China and get a job," the student said. "Maybe, I will work for a government corporation. So, if I say something sensitive about Hong Kong, I worry that the Chinese government will know something about my opinion and that will influence my work or my future in China."
The PRC embassy in Washington did not return VOA's request for comment.
Students interviewed for this story said they feared retribution from the Chinese government if they were identified.
"In China, we don't want to talk about the government too much," said one University of Maryland student. "I send Twitter news to my friends in China but later delete the information from my phone, because I am afraid that when I get back to China, they will search my phone."
The student noted that his political-science undergraduate research is hindered by his discomfort speaking on certain class topics: mass protests in Hong Kong, the independent status of Tibet and Taiwan and recognition of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.
The Wilson Center, a bipartisan think tank in Washington, reported in 2017 that a small community of PRC students and diplomats have engaged in intimidation tactics ranging from intelligence gathering to financial retaliation. "A Preliminary Study of PRC Political Influence and Interference Activities in American Higher Education" examines PRC influence in American universities.
Western college professors say they, too, feel Chinese intelligence gathering in their classrooms.
"There have been a couple times where I have had these older gentlemen from the PRC show up in my classroom unannounced and claim they were visiting and who wanted to sit in on my class," said Crystal Chang-Cohen, who teaches political science at University of California-Berkeley. "But they could not produce any ID so I said no."
Professors who research Chinese politics and history said they suspect they are monitored by PRC intelligence officials. One instructor said Chinese who attend his class who appear older than a typical student are asked to leave if they decline to produce student identification.
A University of Maryland history professor said he, too, occasionally sees classroom visitors he does not recognize. He said he suspects they are gathering intelligence.
"I think it is a concern that we have organizations on campus that have significant ties to the Chinese government, and are used to monitor the behavior of my PRC students," said a government and politics professor at the University of Maryland. Classroom discussions "are typically dealing with PRC sensitive issues, for example, history or political science," the professor said.
Almost all of the college instructors and professors interviewed by VOA asked to remain unnamed out of fear their American universities would not support them if the Chinese government protested their comments, they said.
Chinese students comprise more than 33% of the 1,095,299 international students in the U.S. They typically pay full tuition and fees, which many U.S. universities rely upon for revenue.
The PRC has slashed lucrative university programs when the program dissented from the Chinese government's policies, the Wilson Center reported. It retaliated against the University of Maryland in 2013, which hosted the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, despite warnings from Chinese diplomats. China has occupied Tibet for more than 60 years.
In 2018, Vice President Mike Pence described China's funding for the Maryland program as "suddenly turned from a flood to a trickle."
Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSA) "alert Chinese consulates and embassies when Chinese students, and American schools, stray from the Communist Party line," Pence said at an address at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
And Chinese student Yang Shuping, who addressed the 2017 graduation exercises at the University of Maryland about the "fresh air of free speech" in America, was swiftly rebuked back home. The Communist Party's official newspaper -- China Daily -- published her family's address in China and the family was roundly harassed online.
Shuping later apologized.
Professors and students point to campus Confucius Institutes and CSSAs as participants in intelligence gathering and political influence. The Chinese government, which funds Confucius Institutes worldwide, says these organizations disperse information about Chinese culture and society, not political dogma.
The Confucius Institute U.S. Center describes itself as supporting "the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture in the United States and enable people-to-people exchanges, deepening cross-cultural understanding and language development. The Center promotes a nationwide network of Confucius Institutes that delivers educational and cultural programs that teach Mandarin, cultivate Chinese cultural awareness, and facilitate educational exchanges.
"The world is a big place. The CIUS Center brings a little piece of China to everything we do.
But some universities in Australia, U.K., and U.S. have terminated their contracts with Confucius Centers after bipartisan calls for internal investigations.
Chinese influence has been a top concern of U.S. intelligence agencies.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, in testimony before Congress, said his agency has "a thousand open investigations … involving attempted theft of intellectual property," and almost all the cases involved the Chinese.
"Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom," the American Association of University Professors published in 2014.
But the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) disagrees.
"We do support the type of work done by Confucius Institutes in terms of building libraries, funding Chinese language classes and promoting cultural exchanges," said Lynn Pasquerella, AAC&U's president. "Our experience has not uncovered any evidence of interference by the Chinese government or infringements on academic freedom.
"China is our greatest collaborator for scientific research, and over-surveillance will have a negative impact on knowledge generation.
VOA reached out to six CSSAs through email and social media messages, which did not respond.
Georgetown University's CSSA mission statement describes itself as committed to "providing academic, professional, social and entertainment information and services to its members; promoting Chinese culture, history and languages; promoting dialogue within the Association and the broader Georgetown University community." Mission statements are similar at other universities with Confucius Institute contracts.
The CSSAs "receive guidance from the Chinese Communist Party through Chinese embassies and consulates … and are active in carrying out overseas Chinese work consistent with Beijing's United Front strategy," according to a 2018 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. That commission monitors and investigates national and trade issues, according to its webpage.
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Lily Meskers faced an unexpected choice in the lead-up to the first major election she can vote in.
The 19-year-old University of Montana sprinter was among college athletes in the state who received an inquiry from Montana Together asking if she was interested in a name, image and likeness deal to support Sen. Jon Tester, a three-term Democrat seeking re-election. The group, which is not affiliated with the Tester campaign, offered from $400 to $2,400 to athletes willing to produce video endorsements.
Meskers, who is from Colorado but registered to vote in Montana, decided against the deal because she disagrees with Tester's votes on legislation involving transgender athletes in sports.
"I was like, OK, I believe that this is a political move to try to gain back some voters that he might have lost," Meskers said. "And me being a female student-athlete myself, I was not going to give my endorsement to someone who I felt didn't have the same support for me."
Professional athletes such as LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry have taken high-profile stances on hot-button topics and political campaigns in recent years, but college athletes are far less outspoken — even if money is available, according to experts in the NIL field. Being outwardly political can reflect on their school or endanger potential endorsement deals from brands that don't want controversy. It can certainly establish a public image for an athlete — for better or for worse — or lead to tensions with teammates and coaches who might not feel the same way.
There are examples of political activism by college athletes: A Texas Tech kicker revealed his support for former President Donald Trump on a shirt under his uniform at a game last week and a handful of Nebraska athletes a few days ago teamed up in a campaign ad against an abortion measure on the Tuesday's ballot.
Still, such steps are considered rare.
"It can be viewed as risky and there may be people telling them just don't even take that chance because they haven't made it yet," said Lauren Walsh, who started a sports branding agency 15 years ago. She said there is often too much to lose for themselves, their handlers and in some cases, their families.
"And these individuals still have to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives, even those that do end up getting drafted," she added.
College coaches are not always as reticent. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has used social media to make it clear he does not support Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in next week's presidential election. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy once caused a stir with a star player for wearing a shirt promoting a far-right news outlet.
Blake Lawrence, co-founder of the NIL platform Opendorse, noted that this is the first presidential election in the NIL era, which began in July 2021. He said athletes are flocking to opportunities to help increase voter turnout in the 18-to-24 age demographic, adding that one of his company's partners has had 86 athletes post social media messages encouraging turnout through the first half of the week.
He said athletes are shying away from endorsing specific candidates or causes that are considered partisan.
"Student-athletes are, for the most part, still developing their confidence in endorsing any type of product or service," he said. "So if they are hesitant to put their weight behind supporting a local restaurant or an e-commerce product, then they are certainly going to be hesitant to use their social channels in a political way."
Giving athletes a voice
Many college athletes have opted to focus on drumming up turnout in a non-partisan manner or simply using their platforms to take stands that are not directly political in nature. Some of those efforts can be found in battleground states.
A progressive group called NextGen America said it had signed players in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia to encourage voting among young people. Another organization, The Team, said it prepped 27 college athletes in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan to lead volunteer voter participation opportunities for students. The organization also said it got more than 625 coaches to sign a nonpartisan pledge to get their athletes registered to vote.
The Team's executive director is Joe Kennedy, a former coach who coordinated championship visits and other sporting events at the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. In early October, it hosted a Zoom event during which panelists such as NCAA President Charlie Baker and WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Natasha Cloud gave college athletes advice about using their platforms on campus.
In its early days, The Team seized upon momentum from the record turnout seen in the 2020 election. The NCAA that year said Division I athletes could have Election Day off from practice and play to vote. Lisa Kay Solomon, founder of the All Vote No Play campaign, said even if the athletes don't immediately take stands on controversial issues, it's important for them to learn how.
"It is a lot to ask our young people to feel capable and confident on skills they've never had a chance to practice," Solomon said. "We have to model what it means to practice taking risks, practice standing up for yourself, practice pausing to think about what are the values that you care about — not what social media is feeding into your brain, but what do you care about and how do you express that? And how do you do it in a way that honors the kind of future that you want to be a part of?"
Shut up and play?
Two years ago, Tennessee-Martin quarterback Dresser Winn said he would support a candidate in a local district attorney general race in what experts said was very likely the first political NIL deal by a college athlete.
There have been very few since.
The public criticism and fallout for athletes who speak out on politics or social issue can be sharp. Kaepernick, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, hasn't played in an NFL game since January 2017, not long after he began kneeling during the national anthem at games.
Meskers, the Montana sprinter, said political endorsements through NIL deals could create problems for athletes and their schools.
"I just think that NIL is going to run into a lot of trouble and a lot of struggles if they continue to let athletes do political endorsements," she said. "I just think it's messy. But I stand by NIL as a whole. I think it's really hard as a student athlete to create a financial income and support yourself."
Walsh said it's easier for wealthy and veteran stars like James and Ogwumike to take stands. James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, started More Than a Vote — an organization with a mission to "educate, energize and protect Black voters" — in 2020. He has passed the leadership to Ogwumike, who just finished her 13th year in the WNBA and also is the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association. More than a Vote is focused on women's rights and reproductive freedom this year.
"They have very established brands," Walsh said. "They know who they are and they know what their political stance is. They know that they have a really strong following that -- there's always going to be haters, but they're also always going to have that strong following of people who listen to everything that they have to say."
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor at Emory University who teaches African American politics, also said it is rare that a college athlete would make a significant impact with a political stand simply because they tend to have a more regional platform than national. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Eminem are better at increasing turnout than championing candidates.
"They are certainly very beneficial in helping to drive up turnout among their fans," Gillespie said. "The data is less conclusive about whether or not they're persuasive – are they the ones who are going to persuade you to vote for a particular candidate?"
Athletes as influencers
Still, campaigns know young voters are critical this election cycle, and athletes offer an effective and familiar voice to reach them.
Political and social topics are not often broached, but this week six Nebraska athletes — five softball players and a volleyball player — appeared in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women and Children involving two initiatives about abortion laws on Tuesday's ballot.
The female athletes backed Initiative 434, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions. Star softball player Jordy Bahl said on social media that the athletes were not paid.
A University of Montana spokesperson said two athletes initially agreed to take part in the NIL deal backing Tester. The school said one withdrew and the other declined to be interviewed.
For Meskers, deciding against the offer boiled down to Tester twice voting against proposals to bar federal funds from going to schools that allow transgender athletes to play women's sports, a prominent GOP campaign topic. Tester's campaign said the proposals were amendments to government spending packages, and he didn't want to play a role in derailing them as government shutdowns loomed.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," a Tester spokesperson said. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
Meskers said she believes using influence as college athletes is good and she is in favor of NIL. She just doesn't think the two should mix specifically for supporting candidates.
"I think especially as student athletes, we do have such a big voice and we do have a platform to use," she said. "So I think if you're encouraging people to do their civic duties and get up and go (vote), I think that's a great thing."
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