China’s campaign to silence Americans (and religious freedom)
China’s flag. Creative Commons photo.
(NEWS ANALYSIS) On Oct. 4, Daryl Morey, the general manager of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets tweeted, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” Within 24 hours, the Chinese Basketball Association, sportswear brand Li-Ning, the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, state broadcaster CCTV, and tech-giant Tencent all suspended business with the Rockets. What followed is reminiscent of a Stalinist show trial. The National Basketball Association released a statement calling Morsey’s views “regrettable.” LeBron James mollified his Chinese sponsors by criticizing Morley as “misinformed.”
Under duress, Morley tweeted, “I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China.” On Oct. 12, during an exhibition game at the Capitol One Arena in D.C. between the Washington Wizards and the Guangzhou Loong Lions, officials asks fans who were wearing “Free Hong Kong” T-shirts to leave the arena. Vice President Mike Pence called the NBA a “wholly owned subsidiary” of Beijing.
The NBA imbroglio is the latest in a series of dramatic examples of how Chinese campaigns of intimidation are turning American institutions into propaganda outlets for the Chinese Communist Party. On Oct. 9, People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, accused Apple of allowing “poisonous software” that is a “betrayal of the Chinese people’s feelings.” Apple immediately removed an app, HKmaplive, that was helping protesters in Hong Kong avoid attacks by the police. In a press release, Apple wrote that the app “violates our guidelines and local laws” because it “can be used to target and ambush police.” Google deleted a similar app from the Google Play Store for similar reasons.
On Jan. 9, 2018, a $14-per-hour Marriott Rewards employee in Omaha, NE, Roy Jones, “liked” a tweet by a “Friends of Tibet” group. For this offense, Chinese authorities shut down Marriott’s Chinese website and mobile apps. On Jan. 11, Marriott CEO, Arne Sorenson, echoing the language of the Communist Party, wrote, “We do not support anyone who subverts the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.” Marriott has more than 300 hotels in China, the largest market outside of the United States. On Jan. 14, Craig Smith, managing director of Asia Pacific for Marriott International, fired Roy Jones for “wrongfully liking” the tweet.
China’s Marriott victory emboldened Chinese officials to target dozens more offending businesses. The Chinese ordered more than 40 airlines, including United, American and Delta, to delete from their websites any references to Taiwan as a “country,” which they promptly did after issuing groveling public apologies.
The entertainment industry, with its $9 billion dollar market, is especially vulnerable to Chinese pressure. The Chinese version of “Top Gun” removed the Japanese and Taiwanese flags from Tom Cruises’s jacket. The 2012 version of Red Dawn originally casted Chinese soldiers occupying an American town, but producers changed the invaders to North Koreans after receiving complaints from Chinese officials.
Chinese companies now own AMC Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment, and part of Lionsgate, and this gives China a veto over content in American films.
Chinese companies now own AMC Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment, and part of Lionsgate, and this gives China a veto over content in American films.
“Ultimately, China is going to be not just the biggest market but also the arbiter of what can get made and will get made,” producer Rob Cain told the Financial Times.
China’s sophisticated global censorship regime has led to an epidemic of self-censorship on U.S. campuses on subjects related to political freedoms in Hong Kong and Taiwan and religious freedom for Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and the Falun Gong. Many colleges and universities depend on fully paying Chinese students to balance their budgets. In the 2017-2018 school year, 360,000 students from mainland China contributed over $30 billion to the American economy.
In 2009, the provost of North Carolina State University canceled a visit by the Dalai Lama because “China is a major trading partner for North Carolina.” Tibetan scholar Robert Barnett said that there is a “very strong tendency with many prestigious institutions in the U.S.” to exclude Tibet scholars from academic collaborations involving China.
In May 2017, Chinese student Yang Shuping gave a commencement speech at the University of Maryland in which she praised the “fresh air” of the American system. She was immediately attacked by the Chinese Communist website Global Daily for “enabling hostile agents” and being “brainwashed by foreign forces.” A day later, after her family’s home address was posted online, Yang issued a public apology for her speech. “I had no intentions of belittling my country,” she wrote. “I am deeply sorry and hope for forgiveness.”
This month, Lee Pelton, the president of Emerson College refused to make a public statement to condemn death threats that were being made against Emerson College students from Hong Kong. Pelton warned Emerson College administrators to exercise “global competency” lest they risk a firestorm of criticism from the Chinese government.
In 2004, China began setting up arms of the Chinese government on American college campuses to monitor faculty and students. The most visible Chinese institutions on American campuses are Confucius Institutes, which ostensibly fund the teaching of courses on Chinese language and of traditional Chinese arts, religion, and culture.
In 2009, Li Changchun, the head of propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party called Confucius Institutes “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda apparatus.” This is in keeping with President Xi Jinping’s campaign to appropriate Confucius as a symbol of hierarchy and duty to ruler. “Mao Institutes would have lacked the appeal,” The Economist commented in 2015.
Confucius Institutes are largely staffed and funded by the Chinese government’s Ministry of Education. Rachelle Peterson, Policy Director of the National Association of Scholars, calls Confucius Institutes the “ready eyes and ears of the Chinese government.” They monitor American professors, pressure universities to defer to Chinese preferences and report on Chinese students who are studying abroad.
“Not only can’t you speak freely inside of China, but you can’t even speak freely outside of China—and that’s really bad,” said Xiao Qiang, a Chinese Internet expert at the University of California at Berkeley.
Peterson spent two years studying the Confucius Institutes. She found that the funding arrangements and hiring practices of the Institutes are shrouded in secrecy. Some universities go to extraordinary lengths to avoid scrutiny. At Alfred University, Provost Rick Stephens ejected Peterson from a Confucius Institute class that the teacher had invited her to attend.
Peterson’s advocacy on behalf of students and professors who feel intimidated and silenced by the presence of Confucius Institutes on their campuses has led to federal measures to curb the influence of the Confucius Institutes on college campuses. In 2018, U.S. Senators in Florida, Texas and Massachusetts began pressuring colleges and universities in their states to close existing Confucius Institutes and to stop opening new Institutes.
In 2018, Senator Ted Cruz attached a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act that reduced Pentagon funding to colleges and universities with Confucius Institutes. This rider forces colleges and universities to choose between Pentagon funding for their Chinese language programs and Chinese government funding. These measures have led to the shuttering of over twenty Confucius Institutes.
Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, said that he was surprised by the success of Peterson’s work. “We expected two or three to close, not 20,” Wood said.
Wood said that the NAS’s experience with the Confucius Institutes suggests that “rhetorical shaming” alone will not induce American institutions to turn down the financial incentives that China offers. Instead, the U.S. Congress and government regulators need to be involved in curbing the influence of Chinese soft power. Companies like Google, Marriott, and the NBA should not be able to reap the benefits of an American identity unless they defend American values.
Robert Carle is a professor of historical theology and Islam at The King’s College in Manhattan. Dr. Carle is a contributor to The American Interest, Religion Unplugged, Newsday, Society, Human Rights Review, The Public Discourse, Academic Questions, and Reason.