117827
Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book. Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book. Book your tickets here to the FSU’s live discussion with Matthew Goodwin about his new book.
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Cambridge’s China Centre, a Font of Pro-Beijing Propaganda, Attracts Mild Criticism in Toothless Internal Report

by Toby Young
5 June 2022 3:42 PM

Cambridge University’s China Centre, which is based at Jesus College, has been mildly rebuked for its lack of transparency by an internal College review. As Juliet Samuel points out in her Telegraph column, it’s a little rich of Jesus to have spent £120,000 in an unsuccessful legal battle to remove a plaque commemorating Tobias Rustat because of his links to the slave trade when it has accepted millions of pounds from a totalitarian regime which is currently enslaving close to two million Muslims.

The review makes some long-overdue recommendations, including a policy of transparency about the Centre’s sources of funding and the suggestion that it practises “academic freedom”, rather than simply claiming it does. You could be forgiven for thinking that dons are finally entertaining the thought, trickling uncomfortably through their brains like a stream of iced water, that they may have allowed their college to host a propaganda factory for a genocidal regime. Alas, the review panel’s report stops short of such a conclusion.

Instead, the report is steeped in the delicate art of office politicking. There is lavish praise for the China Centre’s “truly remarkable” seminars and the “exceptionally generous… time, effort and creativity invested” by its director, Peter Nolan – all, remarkably, unpaid.

There is no mention of the fact that Prof. Nolan’s academic work was supported by a £3.7 million donation to the university from the family of Wen Jiabao, China’s former prime minister. Nor does it mention that Prof. Nolan has been recorded telling Cambridge students that the Centre should not hold an event to discuss China’s mass human rights abuses in Xinjiang because it would not be “helpful” and would make it “very difficult to contain… sentiment”. Such facts, you might think, would not make him the most suitable person to run a truly independent centre of study focused on China.

Indeed, as the report points out, the China Centre was notable in its omission of any events on Xinjiang or Hong Kong from its programme, a situation belatedly remedied last year after pressure from students. Even then, its Hong Kong seminar, featuring the Chinese state TV pundit Grenville Cross QC (who has called democracy protesters “terrorists”), happened to run on so long that there was just no time for questions from the audience.

Speakers at its Xinjiang seminar, meanwhile, emphasised “Islamic fundamentalism in Xinjiang”, the effect of Western (yes, Western) “Islamophobia” and the need for a “recognition of the reality of serious violence over many years in Xinjiang”. Nowhere, according to the Centre’s write-up, was Beijing’s incarceration, torture, rape or medical experimentation on more than 1.5 million Uyghurs discussed.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: China CentreHypocrisyJesus CollegeTobias RustatUyghurs

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

The Jubilee Celebrations are a Perfect Riposte to Britain’s ‘Anti-Racist’ Critics

Next Post

Welcome to the New Look Daily Sceptic

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

7 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Meghan and Harry’s Alleged Car Chase, Insane Immigration Under the Tories and the Sinister Closure of Triggernometry’s Bank Account

by Will Jones
23 May 2023
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

France Bans Short-Haul Flights to Tackle Climate Change

25 May 2023
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

26 May 2023
by Toby Young

Black Lives Matter Heads for Insolvency After Founder Patrisse Cullors’ Brother is Paid $1.6M for ‘Security Services’

25 May 2023
by Will Jones

Government Ministers “Alarmed” that the WHO Could Gain Powers to Impose Lockdown on U.K.

26 May 2023
by Will Jones

Countering Censorship With Free Speech and Facts

25 May 2023
by Dr Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson

Migration Hits Record 1.2 Million New Long-Term Arrivals in 2022

43

News Round-Up

32

France Bans Short-Haul Flights to Tackle Climate Change

30

The Only Way to Bring Peace to Ukraine is to Defeat Putin

93

Government Ministers “Alarmed” that the WHO Could Gain Powers to Impose Lockdown on U.K.

21

Countering Censorship With Free Speech and Facts

25 May 2023
by Dr Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson

The Only Way to Bring Peace to Ukraine is to Defeat Putin

24 May 2023
by Ian Rons

Frequent ‘Adjustments’ to Past Temperatures by Met Office Cast Doubt on Global Warming

24 May 2023
by Chris Morrison

No, Democrat-Supporting Political Activists. Ron DeSantis’s Florida is Not a Racist Hellhole

24 May 2023
by Tony Morrison
370799 02: Author Martin Amis poses for a photographer June 12, 2000 at a book signing at the Beverly Hills Library in Beverly Hills, CA. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Online USA)

Martin Amis: Brilliant Stylist, Dull Moralist

24 May 2023
by Dr James Alexander

POSTS BY DATE

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May   Jul »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment