The NY Post, founded by Alexander Hamilton, noted the following:
...Pompeo relates it, he wanted to give a major speech on China and especially the way in which the CCP is distorting universities and other research institutes inside the United States. Not just by funding these institutions, and directing their research, but by trying to turn Chinese students into agents of the communist regime. It’s a crucial subject and was high time that an American official made such an intervention. But shortly before the speech MIT said they couldn’t host the US Secretary of State after all. A strange move, no? Well according to Pompeo he picked up the phone and spoke with the president of MIT, Rafael Reif. And Reif claimed that there was no way that the speech could go ahead because of the risk of offending Chinese students. By MIT’s own data in 2021-22 a full 25% of international students at the university were from China. In fact what was clear was that the no-platforming of an American Secretary of State on an American campus had nothing to do with a fear of upsetting Chinese students. What Reif and his fellow academic cowards were afraid of was that their money spigot from Beijing would be shut off. If a speech were to take place on the MIT campus that upset the communists in China then the CCP would retaliate in a way that would cost MIT financially. Not just via Chinese students attending the university and paying full tuition fees, but in donations which have come to MIT from Chinese state-linked companies and even the Chinese government itself.
This is just a classic example of the anti-American attitude of the administration. I recall Jerry Wiesner coming into the entrance at 77 Mass Ave during the Viet Nam War and he said to his colleague as he saw the remnants of some demonstration, "This is my Institute and they cant make a mess against our country". It is in my opinion highly unlikely the the recent administration at MIT would even come near such a thought.
In my opinion and my experience MIT had become a training ground for many Communist China students. Students from China are approved and vetted by the CCP so they are clearly putative agents. Also they often are funded on research grants from the US Government, even DoD!
Will the new MIT Administration make any changes? Highly doubtful.
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