Our Bureau
Washington, DC
Following the Donald Trump administration’s decision to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students, US Congressman Ro Khanna criticised the move and challenged prominent tech figures including Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, Vinod Khosla, and Reid Hoffman to defend the ban, stating that it cannot be justified on merit.
Sharing a post on X, Khanna said, “Anyone from Silicon Valley willing to speak out against the Trump @JDVance ban on current and future international students at Harvard? I know @elonmusk, @DavidSacks, @pmarca, @chamath, @vkhosla, @reidhoffman that there is not a single tech leader who can defend this on the merits.”
In a related development, a US judge on Friday prevented the Trump administration from canceling Harvard University’s admission of international students.
Harvard said the revocation had an “immediate and disastrous effect” on the university and over 7,000 visa holders, and it was a “blatant breach” of the US Constitution and other federal statutes in a case filed earlier on Friday in a federal court in Boston.
Harvard said, “With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission.”
The temporary restraining order that stopped the policy from immediate implementation, was issued by US District Judge Allison Burroughs, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) revealed documents indicating that Harvard put anti-CCP demonstrators on disciplinary probation while failing to take any measures against the pro-CCP instigator who attacked them, as reported by the Select Committee on Chinese Communist Party (SCCCP).
“This is yet another example of Harvard’s appallingly unequal treatment of protestors based on the speech they support. 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. The American higher education system needs to wake up to the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on our nation’s campuses and protect students who speak out against the CCP, not punish them for standing up to bullies,” said Chairman Moolenaar.
“Once again, Harvard has proven to be completely corrupted by adversarial foreign influence. Harvard is kowtowing to Communist China, and as a senior member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, I will continue working to root out foreign control over our college campuses. We cannot allow American institutions of higher education to serve as tools for Communist China to carry out its transnational repression. I look forward to working with Chairman Moolenaar and Chairwoman Foxx to hold Harvard accountable and to end Communist China’s infiltration of American universities,” said Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, SCCCP release quoted.
“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 favoured groups. Whether it’s pro-Hamas or pro-CCP agitators, administrators apologise to and 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,” said Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, as stated by the SCCCP release.
On April 20, 2024, Xie Feng, the Chinese Ambassador, gave a speech at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. During this speech, Cosette Wu, a student at Harvard, shouted slogans to protest the human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese government, as mentioned in a release from the SCCCP.
Furthermore, Tsering Yangchen, another student at Harvard, was also removed from the event due to her protest. According to the SCCCP, it was revealed that Harvard placed both Wu and Yangchen on disciplinary probation because of their protest, yet no action was taken against the graduate student who assaulted the protesters. Harvard issued an apology to the graduate student for his involvement in the incident.
