Chinese students’ association loses status at Canadian university after protest of Uygur activist’s talk was allegedly coordinated with Chinese consulate
- Student agency at McMaster University in Ontario took action after the chapter spearheaded a campaign against a talk given on campus by activist Rukiye Turdush
- The group’s alleged coordination with the Chinese consulate was deemed to be in violation of student union regulations
The student union at a Canadian university has revoked the club status of the school’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) after an appeal by students seeking to decertify the group over concerns about alleged links to the Chinese government.
Objection to the CSSA’s official status at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, near Canada’s largest city Toronto, stemmed from a protest campaign it spearheaded in February in response to a talk given on campus by Rukiye Turdush, a Uygur activist.
More than 1 million Uygurs and other ethnic minority groups are believed to be detained in mass internment camps in China’s northwest and subject to political indoctrination. Beijing describes the facilities as vocational training centres.
The association issued an open letter objecting to the university’s invitation to Turdush, reported the event to the Chinese consulate in Toronto and sent footage of the talk to Chinese officials at their request, The Washington Post reported at the time.
Those actions were deemed on Sunday by the McMaster University student union’s governing body, the Student Representative Assembly (SRA), to be in violation of student union regulations.
“All students wishing to form a club agree to a specific set of rules regarding their conduct as a club,” Joshua Marando, the student union’s president, said in a statement. “It was the determination of the SRA that CSSA had violated those rules.”
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Revocation of the CSSA’s official club status went into immediate effect after the passage of Sunday’s motion, which was brought by 22 of the SRA’s 35 elected student representatives.
Simranjeet Singh, one of the assembly members who campaigned to have the association’s ratification revoked, told the assembly before Sunday’s vote that many students had come forward to share their concerns, according to a video of SRA proceedings posted to Facebook.
“While we have no ability to change what’s happening in China or prevent the heinous crimes there, we do have the ability to try to protect the people who are at McMaster,” said Singh.
Anonymous testimony from a student of Chinese ethnicity submitted to the student body said that it was “extraordinarily terrifying [...] to know that an organization — in its capacity as an [student union]-ratified club — reported activity on campus to the Chinese government.”
The student wrote that they did not present their testimony publicly for fear of their personal safety, though their identity as a McMaster student was verified by the union, said Marando.
Chinese students in Canada report Uygur activist’s talk to consulate
The CSSA at McMaster describes itself as a support network for newly arrived Chinese students, assisting them in adapting to the cultural environment and organising social events.
The association operates a website for Chinese students featuring active forums in which students share listings for accommodation and posts about activities on campus.
With the move, the association will lose access to student union funding, booking room privileges and promotional tools. The association did not respond to a request for comment.
In the wake of the CSSA’s protests in February, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa denied any involvement but applauded “the just and patriotic actions of Chinese students”.
Sunday’s action against the CSSA comes as western university campuses are increasingly playing stage to public clashes between supporters and detractors of Beijing.
Last week, the CSSA at Purdue University in Indiana issued an open letter condemning the university’s invitation of civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng to campus to deliver a talk on the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights in China.
A statement posted to the Purdue CSSA’s official WeChat account, in which it bemoaned the university’s decision to uphold its commitment to free speech and proceed with the event, called on Chinese students to exercise “rational patriotism”.
CSSAs had a history of attempting to pressure their host universities into pulling the plug on events featuring Tibetans, pro-democracy advocates, Uygurs and – most recently – supporters of the ongoing anti-government movement in Hong Kong, said human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo, who called Sunday’s decision “momentous”.
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Zhou, who was once No. 5 on Beijing’s most-wanted list for his role leading student protests in 1989, said his own efforts to communicate with Chinese students in the US about pro-democracy issues have been thwarted due to the “intimidating” presence of CSSAs on campus.
Mike Gow, an expert in Chinese education and currently a lecturer in international business at Coventry University, noted that CSSAs may have connections “of varying significance depending on the university” to the Chinese government, but cautioned against a blanket prohibition on the associations.
“Banning them outright would not only be an overreaction, it would deprive the student community of a valuable resource for all students from China,” said Gow.
“But if [there] is evidence of systematic interference and incidents which contravene the CSSA’s charter obligations, then they should be subject to scrutiny and, where appropriate, suspension, expulsion or decertification.”
