Documents show Harvard disciplined protesters for disrupting a speech by the Chinese ambassador, but not a Chinese student who dragged a protester away.
Chairs of two House select committees criticized Harvard University on Oct. 18 for reprimanding student protesters who disrupted the Chinese ambassador’s speech, while failing to discipline a Chinese student who forcibly removed one of the protesters.
The incident occurred on April 20, when Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng gave an opening address for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s China Conference 2024, an annual student-run event organized by the Greater China Society.
His speech was interrupted by several protesters who yelled slogans including “China lies. People die,” and “Free Tibet.”
One of the protesters, Taiwanese American student Cosette Wu, shouted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had devastated Hong Kong’s democracy and was seeking to do the same to Taiwan.
She was allegedly dragged out of the hall by her arms by a male student who helped organize the event. Other protesters were escorted out by university police.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, wrote to interim Harvard University President Alan Garber in July to ask several questions about the incident, including what disciplinary actions, if any, had been taken.
The committee on Friday published some of the documents Moolenaar obtained.
Moolenaar and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the university failed to apply its rules consistently.
According to the documents obtained by Moolenaar, the Chinese student who dragged the other student away has allegedly violated school rules on physical violence, but he escaped disciplinary action after a dean felt the student had been “punished … enough” after being doxxed, meaning the student’s personal information was published online. The student has never been officially identified, but his alleged identity was widely shared in Chinese-speaking social media circles shortly after the incident.
In an Oct. 18 statement, Moolenaar said the Ivy League school is “punishing brave students who spoke out against the CCP’s human rights abuses while not only letting the student … off scot-free but also handing him an apology.”
By Lily Zhou
