The US and China are in a growing conflict. It is clear that China has sent many students here and those students, often supported by US tax dollars, gain significant and valuable intellectual property information as part of open academic institutions. I have seen this first hand. If it comes between a US grad student and one from China, most often in my opinion and in my experience the one from China gets chosen over the US student at MIT. It has become ever so more intense. Last January as the plague was intensifying I walked the halls of MIT and large crowds of Chinese national were walking en masse, examining many of the Labs and freely obtaining insights from the faculty.
An education institution such as MIT has a duty to the US, especially since it is a land grant college. However in my opinion the current administration as abandoned such a focus and in fact has in my opinion opposed it.
In a recent discussion at Georgia Tech the Secretary of State is alleged to have noted as follows:
He pointed to Chinese programs on American campuses, such as the Confucius Institutes, Chinese student organizations directed and funded by the local Chinese embassy or consulate. Pompeo stated their purpose is “to keep tabs on students and to press pro-Beijing causes.” Despite the importance of warning Americans of the CCP’s activities right on American campuses, Pompeo said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) president denied his request to deliver the same speech at its campus. “MIT wasn’t interested in having me to their campus to give this exact set of remarks. President Raphael Reif implied that my arguments might insult their ethnic Chinese students and professors,” he said.
In a second source they note:
Speaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Pompeo accused the Chinese Communist Party of “poisoning” the nation’s higher education system and said American schools were censoring anti-Beijing dissent because they were “hooked on Chinese Communist Party cash.” “MIT wasn’t interested in having me to their campus to give this exact set of remarks. President Raphael Reif implied that my arguments might insult their ethnic Chinese students and professors,” Pompeo told the crowd in the Peach State. “But of course nothing could further from the truth. These are the very people that this set of remarks is intended to protect, to protect their freedoms,” he said. MIT is currently under investigation by the Department of Education for failing to fully declare foreign donations from the People’s Republic of China. A spokeswoman for the Cambridge, Mass., institution denied Pompeo’s account, saying they declined to host the event to follow social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic — as they did with a number of high-profile guests.
I am not surprised by the response of the MIT management. I may be repulsed, but not surprised. Regrettably I have seen this attitude growing over the past few years. The plague has highlighted this. When in 1941 the US needed the best of the best MIT stepped up to the table. During the current plague they seem in my opinion to have locked their doors while pursuing various Social Justice mandates.
It is a shame that such a great institution has turned into what it is becoming. But there may be hope. West Virginia University may have a chance to move into the role. Go Mountaineers!
Posts
