Some Chinese Communist Party officials call Harvard their ‘party school’
As President Donald Trump continues his attacks on Harvard University, the school’s purported ties to the Chinese government are coming under increased scrutiny. So many mid-level and senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials have studied at Harvard that some of them reportedly refer to it as their “party school” – as in the school of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a former Chinese vice president studied at Harvard in 2002; the country’s lead negotiator in tariff talks with the United States earned a master’s degree in 1995; and a daughter of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, attended in the early 2010s.
Education
About one-fifth of international students at Harvard University — 2,126 — come from China. Another 80 are from Hong Kong.
Harvard says 2,126 Chinese students are currently enrolled in the Ivy League school. Its 10,158 international students make up 27% of its student population.
The fight over Harvard
By the end of April, the Trump administration had frozen over $11 billion to U.S. universities nationwide. Recently, however, Trump has specifically singled out Harvard and other elite schools. He accused Harvard and others of fostering antisemitism and stifling conservative viewpoints – charges that university officials deny.
Trump’s administration has since frozen or canceled $3.3 billion in Harvard’s federal grants and contracts alone, most of which covered biomedical and other scientific research. The administration also barred Harvard from enrolling students from other countries.
The university responded with two lawsuits, and a federal judge has restored, at least temporarily, Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.
Trump said on May 28 that he would be satisfied if Harvard capped international enrollment, perhaps at 15%. “We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools,” Trump said, “but they can’t get in because we have foreign students there.”
Students from other countries have attended Harvard for decades, and the school is a top destination for aspiring scholars around the world. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, China began sending students in an organized manner during the 1980s, particularly to study at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Harvard launched a fellowship and executive training program for top Chinese officials in 1998, according to the Journal, and it created another program in the early 2000s in partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing. The latter was intended to “help prepare senior local and central Chinese government officials to more effectively address the ongoing challenges of China’s national reforms,” Harvard said when the program was announced.
Targeting Chinese students
The Trump administration has targeted international students at universities across the country, not just at Harvard. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his agency has revoked thousands of student visas, and on May 28 he announced a crackdown on Chinese students.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio said in a statement. “We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
Rubio did not identify the “critical fields” of study, although news reports suggest that students enrolled in advanced science and engineering programs will be most closely scrutinized. Nor did Rubio say how State Department officials would determine the extent of any individual student’s ties to the Communist Party.
About 280,000 Chinese students attend U.S. high schools, colleges and universities, according to the International Educational Exchange, a nonprofit that promotes foreign study programs.
‘Global challenges suddenly felt personal’
The day after Rubio’s announcement, history was made at Harvard.
Student achievement
Luanna Yurong Jiang, who earned a master’s degree from Harvard University this year, became the first Chinese citizen ever to speak at the school’s commencement.
Luanna Yurong Jiang, who had just completed her master’s degree in public administration, delivered a speech at Harvard’s graduation ceremony, becoming the first Chinese citizen featured at the school’s commencement.
Jiang attended high school in the United Kingdom and earned an undergraduate degree at Duke University before studying international development at Harvard. She has volunteered for an environmental organization created by the Chinese government, according to the South China Morning Post. But no evidence has emerged that she has direct ties to the Chinese government or the Communist Party.
She did not mention Trump, Rubio or the administration’s attacks on Harvard. However, she said that “global challenges suddenly felt personal” to her and other international students, who felt the impact of “division, fear and conflict.”
“We’re starting to believe those who think differently, vote differently, or pray differently – whether they are across the ocean or sitting right next to us – are not just wrong. We mistakenly see them as evil. But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
At Harvard, Jiang said, she learned to “sit with discomfort, listen deeply and stay soft in hard times.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
