Student Group Urges 'Execution' for Offending China

Epoch Times
Friday, July 13, 2007

A Chinese student group at Columbia University posted a statement on its Web site on Wednesday that calls for the "execution" of "anyone who offends China." The statement makes clear that "anyone" refers to those who practice Falun Gong.

The publishing of this statement is the latest and most extreme instance of attacks by the Columbia University Chinese Student and Scholars Association (CUCSSA) on Falun Gong, dating back to a panel discussion sponsored by the Columbia University Falun Dafa Club on April 20.

These attacks have occurred in spite of formal complaints having been lodged against previous CUCSSA actions and the addition of two University administrators to the CUCSSA advisory board.

Lidia Louk, a member of the Columbia University Falun Dafa Club, says this latest posting by the CUCSSA makes her feel "personally threatened."

She continued, "Any threats toward Falun Gong, and particularly any death threats, should be taken very seriously, especially because the deaths of practitioners persecuted in China are real."

Organ Harvesting
The panel discussion in April, titled "China's New Genocide," had been widely advertised on the Columbia University campus and featured three speakers discussing the practice of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in China.

The CUCSSA responded by sending out an email to its members the night before that referred to using "flags dyed red in blood to beat" the "high spirits" of Falun Gong. The email also repeated slanders of Falun Gong typically used in the Chinese regime's propaganda.

The Falun Dafa Club received a copy of the inflammatory e-mail and Columbia University police were on hand the next day when 20 to 30 CUCSSA members showed up carrying large red flags, which they were forced to leave outside the lecture hall.

During the panel discussion CUCSSA students held up small placards attacking Falun Gong using terms borrowed from the Chinese regime's anti-Falun Gong propaganda, flew paper airplanes in the direction of the speakers, and in other ways acted in a disruptive manner. Two students from the CUCSSA group were prevented from reentering the lecture hall because of their inappropriate behavior.

Complaint Filed
After the events on April 20 Suman Srinivasan and one other Columbia student filed a complaint with Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) against the president of CUCSSA, Mr. Ku Xai, and three other CUCSSA members who, like Ku, are students in SEAS.

Srinivasan is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Columbia and the president of the Falun Dafa club. His complaint alleged religious discrimination and the defaming of Falun Gong. It referred to the placards held by the CUCSSA students on April 20 and to several postings published after April 20 on the CUCSSA Web site that attack Falun Gong.

These Web postings would first be e-mailed by Ku to the CUCSSA e-mail list (CUCSSA claims 4,000 members) and then posted on the Web site.

An investigator from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) called Ku and asked him about the postings on the CUCSSA Web site. In a transcript of that phone call published by WOIPFG, Ku claims these postings are articles taken from the Chinese Embassy's Web site and published with the Embassy's permission.

Srinivasan said, "These articles and e-mails by Ku are hate speech. They are what the Chinese regime uses to justify the persecution of Falun Gong in China."

University Response
According to Ms. Louk, after complaining to multiple offices of the University by phone and email on the evening of the 11th about the posting by the CUCSSA that recommends execution, she finally got a response on the afternoon of the 12th. A university administrator told her the complaint was being investigated and her office was waiting for an official translation of the Chinese-language post.

An alumnus of the Columbia who prefers to remain nameless says he is "extremely surprised" by the University's response to the actions of the CUCSSA.

"Columbia University has not taken any action against a student organization whose Web site uses Columbia's name and logo to send out hate-filled propaganda for almost three months. How can that be?" he said.

Whether the SEAS has disciplined Ku in response to Srinivasan's complaint is not known, as University policy forbids disclosing the result of disciplinary hearings. However, the July 11 posting on the CUCSSA Web site claimed that Ku had been found "blameless" by SEAS.

Srinivasan confirms that SEAS reached a decision on his complaint. He learned this when he contacted the administrator handling his complaint to give her updated information and was told the complaint had been settled.

Srinivasan said, "It may be that Ku Xai got away with a slap on the wrist, or with no punishment at all."

Other complaints against CUCSSA made to the University are still outstanding. The members of the Falun Dafa club have been told resolution of their complaints takes time.

Srinivasan feels that the University administrators have been very cool to the Falun Dafa Club's complaints and has sought to downplay the incidents of harassment. He feels the University simply wishes to avoid bad publicity.

The Columbia alumnus speculated on why the University would be slow to act. "Columbia University is desperately trying to raise money. It has extensive collaboration with China, and a few departments are very well funded by China," he said.

Supervising CUCSSA
After the Falun Dafa Club complained of the behavior of the CUCSSA on April 20, two Columbia University administrators were added to the CUCSSA advisory board, Ms. Beatrice Terrien, the associate dean for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Ms. Kecia Brown, the assistant director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Prior to their appointment, the sole members of the CUCSSA advisory board were officials of the Chinese Consulate in New York.

The University adminstrators' presence in an advisory role has not had any noticeable effect on the behavior of the CUCSSA, as witnessed by the several postings attacking Falun Gong on its Web site.

The Epoch Times has recently reported on former officers of Chinese Student and Scholar Associations at several schools who have given detailed accounts of how the Chinese Consulates control the Chinese student organizations.

Chen Yonglin, before he defected in Australia, was the first secretary of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney. He has explained how these groups "are an extension of the Chinese communist regime overseas."

"Often, it is not convenient for the Chinese mission to do certain things. So to use student organizations, with a neutral name, is more effective," according to Chen.

The Columbia alumnus points out that if Ku is operating as an agent of the Chinese Consulate, "The minimum thing that Ku will do is to report any Falun Gong practitioners at Columbia University to Chinese Consulate.

"Once someone is on the Chinese Communist Party blacklist, the CCP will do such things to them as deny passports or arrest them if they travel to China. This means he is exporting the persecution to Columbia and the CUCSSA is violating the principle of religious freedom," according to the alumnus.

The alumnus hopes his former school will take the long view in deciding finally how to respond to the CUCSSA.

"In the short term, receiving millions of dollars in donations may seem important. In the long run, nothing is more important than preserving the freedom of religion. I hope Columbia University will understand that," he said.

Srinivasan also sees the response to CUCSSA as critical for Columbia: "I think Columbia University's reputation is at stake. Columbia University's values are what have stood the test of time and allowed it to be one of the top schools in the country. If it doesn't defend those values, it loses."

Phone calls to Columbia University administrators were not returned, and the officers of the CUCSSA could not be reached before this article was published.

With reporting by Matt Gnaizda.