New York, N.Y. – New York University’s Shanghai campus added a pro-communism political class last year. The class addition was requested (demanded?) by the Chinese government.
According to Campus Reform and Vice, the course requires field trips to pro-communist monuments in China. The curriculum also includes screenings of films such as “Promoting the Prosperity and Development of Socialist Culture with Chinese Characteristics.”
Those involved with the creation of the course at NYU Shanghai went to great lengths to keep the course addition quiet. In fact, students were only informed of the class via a message on WeChat.
The so-called “civic education” course was first offered during the winter break of the 2018-2019 academic year. The course does not appear in the registered listings of courses offered by New York University Shanghai. It is taught by unaffiliated instructors from Shanghai, though chancellor Yu Lizhong is listed as a speaker in the syllabus.
The Chinese government requires all Chinese citizens attending college to take the class.
Communist propaganda such as this underscores the push by the Chinese government to limit academic freedom in the country. NYU Shanghai appears complicit in the effort to quietly hold the propaganda course.
This NYU student even believes the university violated its pledge to uphold academic freedom on its Shanghai campus, according to Campus Reform.
Bobby Miller, vice president of the NYU College Republicans, said NYU has submitted to the “will of the Chinese regime.”
“NYU Shanghai’s shameful capitulation to the Chinese Communist Party’s propagandistic demands is a total betrayal of the university’s pledge that classes would be conducted ‘in accordance with the principles of academic freedom,'” Miller said.
It’s hard to disagree.
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