A Harvard University student who confronted a Chinese official earlier this year has been placed on disciplinary probation, while another student who forcibly removed the protester from the event was given an apology letter from a school official.
Student Cosette Wu was placed on disciplinary probation earlier this year for interrupting the speech of Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, who was hosted by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in April.
“You robbed Hong Kongers of the most fundamental freedoms and devastated their democracy,” Wu said while interrupting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official’s speech. “Now, in my country Taiwan, you sought to do the same.”
During Wu’s interruption, she was grabbed and escorted out by a Chinese Harvard Graduate Student, Hongji Zou. However, an administrator sent a letter of apology to Zou rather than disciplining him, according to documentation obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.
“I understand that your intentions were to prevent the event from being further disrupted,” Harvard Academic Dean Martin West wrote to Zou. “I also acknowledge that you and your family have experienced significant harm as a result of the event, which I deeply regret.”
“We are grateful for your contributions to the Education Policy and Analysis master’s degree program this year and look forward to conferring your degree at tomorrow’s Commencement ceremony,” West added.
Zou was reportedly an officer of Harvard’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association, which is affiliated with the CCP, as noted by the Free Beacon.
Harvard’s response to the incident has been criticized as too pro-CCP, given that it only punished the student protesting the Chinese official.
“This is yet another example of Harvard’s appallingly unequal treatment of protestors based on the speech they support,” Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar said in a press release. “Harvard is punishing brave students who spoke out against the CCP’s human rights abuses while not only letting the student who assaulted them off scot-free but also handing him an apology.”
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”I wish I could say I was surprised, but this is par for the course for Harvard – the only consistent part of the university’s disciplinary standards is that they’re always applied selectively to the benefit of favored groups,” Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx said in the same press release.
“Whether it’s pro-Hamas or pro-CCP agitators, administrators apologize to and actually encourage some students to keep expressing their so-called ‘meaningful discourse’ at the expense of the safety of other students. It’s unacceptable, and I appreciate Chairman Moolenaar shining a light on this major issue,” she added.
Campus Reform has contacted Harvard University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was written by Patrick McDonald and originally published at campusreform.org
