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Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

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Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#121

Post by ramraj07 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #71
ipnon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But nominally, you can be a political fool in Switzerland without professional consequence.[a] It seems he is being forced to play by the social rules of China in Switzerland. It's fair to say his tweets could jeopardize his ability to return to China and secure a professorship or research position, but to suffer professional consequences in Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, for Chinese political incorrectness is…

from the context of the article it seems like he's getting his PhD in Chinese studies, and obviously that likely means you will have relations to China, which is what the professor in question was worried about. It's a little bit like majoring in Iranian studies, insulting the Ayatollah and prophet on Twitter and then being upset when you get barred from the country and people start professionally ditching you. Like,…

He didn’t study China just some environmental aspects of it. But point still stands.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#122

Post by rocqua »

Barrin92 wrote: post #71
ipnon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But nominally, you can be a political fool in Switzerland without professional consequence.[a] It seems he is being forced to play by the social rules of China in Switzerland. It's fair to say his tweets could jeopardize his ability to return to China and secure a professorship or research position, but to suffer professional consequences in Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, for Chinese political incorrectness is…

from the context of the article it seems like he's getting his PhD in Chinese studies, and obviously that likely means you will have relations to China, which is what the professor in question was worried about. It's a little bit like majoring in Iranian studies, insulting the Ayatollah and prophet on Twitter and then being upset when you get barred from the country and people start professionally ditching you. Like,…

His PhD was about environmental damage in China. That is not something cultural or diplomatic. It does not require close ties with China, though it does help to have access.

Nothing here means you shouldn't criticize China. In fact, the premise of the research becomes moot if you cannot criticize China.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#123

Post by jollybean »

casualracism wrote: post #117
jollybean wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you comparing blatantly racist actions with mild, indirect criticism of a government?

What are you even talking about? Posting racist cartoon depicting stereotypes about Chinese is exactly what the Chinese studies PhD student did, so this is an exact parallel.

A cartoon which has Chinese characters is not racist.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#124

Post by rocqua »

MikeUt wrote: post #72
ipnon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But nominally, you can be a political fool in Switzerland without professional consequence.[a] It seems he is being forced to play by the social rules of China in Switzerland. It's fair to say his tweets could jeopardize his ability to return to China and secure a professorship or research position, but to suffer professional consequences in Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, for Chinese political incorrectness is…

Maybe not lose your job, but the University of California will prevent you from getting one, as they require all job candidates to commit to and have a history of advancing diversity. Conflicting political posts would probably harm your ability to pass this first step of the job application process. The University’s New Loyalty Oath - https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-universitys-new-loyalty-oat...

I doubt the UCA is actually going to check. But it us still horrible that a university is enacting such a political requirement.

It feels to me much more aimed at being able to fire people when controversy arrises than something used to actively screen new hires. Though perhaps the self-selection is also meant as a goal.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#125

Post by vagrantJin »

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #33
vagrantJin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think they are not? Is it different or worse from the US foreign policy of "lets kill brown people half way across the world"? The anti-China rhetoric has to stop somewhere.

The US has a lot of problems and bad behavior. Yet we can talk about it without worrying if the us govt is pressuring our employer to fire us, without worrying about the safety of family members & friends living in the us will be rounded up. China is not that place. It's not anti-Chinese rhetoric to point our reality. China is the place where people wonder when the authorities are coming to take you to the re-educati…

> The US has a lot of problems and bad behavior

Hahaha.

> China is the place where people wonder when the authorities are coming to take you to the re-education camp, hopefully not to be sterilized.

You must be joking. Really. A link to NYT and theAtlantic? Stand up comedy might just be your thing.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#126

Post by jollybean »

casualracism wrote: post #17

Not sure what the timeline is here. TFA strongly implies it’s a tweet on March 21 inciting a response on March 28, but buries the lede about the racist cartoon posted at an unknown time that the professor claims to have received an email about. I’m sure political factors play the leading role here, but it’s long past the point where you can casually post racist cartoons and act surprised when you’re hit by undesirabl…

"And before you accuse me of things,"

You're using a moniker 'casualracism' trying to exploit the notion of a cartoon which has 'Chinese Characters' as inherently racist, even though that's entirely likely to be a weaponized use of the term given the political context.

"If you criticized China, you are Racist" is bad form.

It's a very easy and common method of CCP duplicity to simply blow the 'racism' dog whistle and have 1/2 of Westerners immediately lose context and get distracted.

There's no way what the PhD student did should lead to anything other than someone being trite on Twitter and that would be the end of it.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#127

Post by sharken »

curiousgal wrote: post #95
ramraj07 wrote: post #15

The professor should be fired and the university punished (doubtful), but the student was also an idiot to do what he did. It’s not like he was some random guy who just tweeted at China, he lived in wuhan for years and has actual family there now, being critical of a totalitarian government in that scenario is the height of monumental stupidity. It’s ironic that the article paints him as methodological and thoughtful…

The story goes: dude studies in china. Is in Switzerland bc of corona. Starts posting anti CCP on Twitter. Posts racist picture, some chinese PhD student in Canada sees it. Emails his supervisor. Supervisor sees it and decides that she doesn't want to work with someone who posts racist pictures (for the wrong reason not bc of the picture but because she fears she will get excluded if she publishes with him). This is…

It is very convenient to only mention the racist picture and not also mention the accusation of the Chinese Coronavirus cover-up.

The latter is just as bad for the CCP and would also lead to the events we have seen.

But it's obvious that when you are doing Chinese studies paid by a Chinese university, then you're not free from repercussions when you tweet from a European country.

So yes, China is influencing European universities and the west appears to accept this.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#128

Post by bmn__ »

abbassi wrote: post #82

I'm happy she is dismissed. No student should be a propaganda tool, especially in a continent that Julian Assange is in jail in worse conditions (like those of Stalin) for doing journalism and revealing the war crimes of so-called democratic countries.

You seem to have misunderstood the article, she is not dismissed. Nothing of consequence happened to her for dropping the student.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#129

Post by curiousgal »

sharken wrote: post #127
curiousgal wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The story goes: dude studies in china. Is in Switzerland bc of corona. Starts posting anti CCP on Twitter. Posts racist picture, some chinese PhD student in Canada sees it. Emails his supervisor. Supervisor sees it and decides that she doesn't want to work with someone who posts racist pictures (for the wrong reason not bc of the picture but because she fears she will get excluded if she publishes with him). This is…

It is very convenient to only mention the racist picture and not also mention the accusation of the Chinese Coronavirus cover-up. The latter is just as bad for the CCP and would also lead to the events we have seen. But it's obvious that when you are doing Chinese studies paid by a Chinese university, then you're not free from repercussions when you tweet from a European country. So yes, China is influencing European…

What are you on about? The CCP has nothing to do with this.

Re: Swiss Ph.D student’s dismissal spotlights China’s influence

#130

Post by curiousgal »

anfelor wrote: post #97
curiousgal wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! I am glad to see people are actually reading the articles. Last time this was published no one even bothered to note that there was no intervention from China whatsoever. Following the same logic a hotel worker losing their job because an American tourist complained can say that the United States got them fired.. The comments critical of the CCP in this thread prove that confirmation bias is alive and well…

Yes, there is no concrete intervention that the CCP did. Still, a supervisor broke off their contact with a promising student based on either the fear of retribution or personal feelings of nationalism. That culture is the product of CCP censorship and many people don't want it in the western world.

Honestly, if I were a professor and my PhD student was overly critical of the US online, I too would distance myself. Visa applications are hard enough as they are.
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