Criticism of China isn’t just verboten in Hollywood or the NBA—American universities are increasingly banning criticism of the Communist dictatorship, even as they celebrate the most extreme hatred of the United States and Israel.
The latest case comes from George Washington University, where President Mark Wrighton responded to posters criticizing China’s human rights abuses in the context of the Olympics by apologizing and threatening those who had put them up.
“Please know that I am personally offended by the posters. I treasure the opportunity to work with talented people from all over the world, including China.... we are working to have all of these offensive posters removed as soon as possible. I, too, am saddened by this terrible event and we will undertake an effort to determine who is responsible,” he reportedly wrote.
The terrible event in question being not China’s human rights abuses, but the posters.
The art came from Badiucao, a popular Chinese dissident political cartoonist whose work appears in Australian papers and who was profiled on 60 Minutes.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has issued a statement condemning Wrighton and GWU for the threat to unmask the students involved, stating: “Censorship may be welcome at the Beijing Olympics, but it doesn’t belong on campus.”
Badiucao, too, has condemned Wrighton.
Of course we’re quite familiar with this sort of thing at the Freedom Center. As is Oleg Atbashian of The People’s Cube, who wrote in 2016:
“As you may have heard, on November 4th I was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail for posting anti-terror stickers on George Mason University campus. I was charged with ‘class 6 felony for destruction of property,’ threatened with five years in prison, and released 14 hours later on $8,000 bail posted by my wife. The court date is now set for February 14th, 2017.
“On the weekend of November 4th, GMU was hosting a two-day national conference held by the Hamas-affiliated hate group, Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP). In this regard, prominent author David Horowitz had addressed the GMU president with an open letter, recommending to conduct an immediate inquiry into the group’s activities and remove their campus privileges and funding, in order to stop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students at George Mason. That letter remained unanswered.
“As school administrations across America remain comfortably numb to this fact for whatever financial or ideological reasons, all efforts to engage them in a civil discourse have proven futile. George Mason University, in particular, has distinguished itself with examples of enforced unanimity, suppression of free speech, and outright ideological intolerance among its students and faculty.
“Therefore, David Horowitz and I have teamed up in a campaign that would make GMU leaders uncomfortable enough to pay attention, look outside their ivory towers, and take in the reality. And it worked.
“I have designed posters that expose the genocidal nature of anti-Israel activism and the deadly consequences of supporting pro-terror groups. On the eve of the SJP gathering at George Mason, I posted stickers with these designs in various conspicuous spots on campus. They were noticed. The GMU authorities became annoyed enough to mobilize campus police force to look for the perpetrators.”
Oleg used the term, “canary in the coal mine.” GWU is showing pretty clearly just how right he was.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.
This article was first published by FrontPage Magazine.
