A tweet cost him his doctorate: the extent of China’s influence on Swiss Unis

https://www.nzz.ch/english/swiss-phd-students-dismissal-spotlights-chinas-influence-ld.1638771

67 22 5 years ago

aritmo• 5 years ago

The tweet: «#CCP made fighting #COVID-19 plan B. Only to be executed if Plan A – covering it up – fails. Those are the actions of paranoid cowards. They neither deserve my respect nor gratitude #ChinaLiedPeopleDied»

That is QAnon-class.

MattGaiser• 5 years ago

Wouldn't a successful cover up necessitate fighting it? Maybe with insufficient resources to avoid attracting attention, but you couldn't let the virus rage.

shapefrog4• 5 years ago

You have to be smart to get a doctorate ... this tweet is dumb.

Although I am sure his 10 followers were relieved to get insight into his thinking on the subject.

lazyeye4• 5 years ago

Why is it dumb and what does the number of followers have to do with anything? If he had more followers does that mean his tweet was more accurate?

jsiepkes• 5 years ago

In the west (very generally speaking) you alert your superiors real fast in case of problems. Mostly to cover your own behind (by making other people complicit).

In the east (again, very generally speaking) you alert your superiors only when you yourself are in way over your head. Failing means losing face. In power structures where there is a single entity which controls all the high level positions (ie. a single party) the incentive to bury problems becomes real high.

So I guess it might actually be not that inaccurate.

marcusverus• 5 years ago

Well, there are documented instances where agents of the state were attempting to silence whistleblowers. Presumably he's referring to Li Wenliang's experience of being "punished" by authorities for "spreading rumors" in January 2020.[0] Or the experience of Li's colleague, Ai Fen, who "On Jan 2, 2020...was summoned by.. the party chief of Wuhan Central Hospital, who terrified her into silence with verbal threats."[1]

That's hardly grounds for accusations of a grand conspiracy, but then, China has a track record of literally burying evidence that makes them look bad[2]...

[0]https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0... [1]https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/07/wuhan-coronavirus-covid... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou_train_collision

frnkng2• 5 years ago

Regarding China, maybe it’s best to stick to the following German folk song: (English translation is unfortunately not not as good as the original, sorry).

Thoughts are free, who can guess them? They fly by like nocturnal shadows. No person can know them, no hunter can shoot them with powder and lead: Thoughts are free!

With other words: think what you want (but be careful to speak it out).

WastingMyTime89• 5 years ago

No, China shouldn't be able to squash critical speach in foreign countries. The solution is not to cower out in fear. Institution which sanctions people critical to China should be shamed and sanctioned as much as possible.

All of this is very intentional from China. It is a form of cultural war where China is fighting aggressively against the core western values using his new found economic power. Staying passive is chosing to lose.

curiousgal• 5 years ago

Except China didn't? The professor personally chose to terminate her relationship with the student, the only complaint she received was from a Chinese student in Canada. You make it seem like the Chinese ambassador was involved.

lazyeye4• 5 years ago

Yes we often here about "anti-intellectualism" but there are often good reasons to be contemptuous of a sector of society that likes to tell everybody else how to think and behave but dont live up to those same standards themselves. People arent stupid.

frnkng2• 5 years ago

Listen man. This has nothing to do with cowering in fear or staying passive. Please don’t make the mistake cowardice with pointlessness.

Do not underestimate the reach and abilities of a whole nation that want to shutdown critical voices. This was possible 80 years ago within a nation and it is possible on a global scale today. Nothing can be gained by just posting critic online. It will be stored forever, personally linked to the author and should it not be liked by some nations or corporations, the author has to bear the consequences. Possibly forever. We did build the Internet with good intentions, now we have a global harassment and suppression machine. We have to live with that reality now even if we dislike it. We can’t undo it.

Things that are “hold my beer..” style only bring pain.

Goety• 5 years ago

China has more silent support for squashing free speech globally than the US audience realizes

nacs• 5 years ago

Duplicate (with more comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28060240

@dang

archibaldJ• 5 years ago

Why was the post flagged? Was it that people are voting to flag it?

I thought this is a pretty legit post pointing to a legit sociopolitical problem.

nsonha• 5 years ago

it's a link to a reddit thread, itself is just a link to another reddit thread, whose main article is not in English

dotcommand• 5 years ago

More anti-china propaganda.

Education is a key aspect of China's global power strategy.

Is it not a key aspect of every major nation? But when we do it, it's called "soft power".

This was supposed to be «neo-Nazi-like» content?

That's funny, if it was "neo-nazi" content, then it's okay to be censored?

In offering such assistance, China specifically selects students from countries in which it has political interests.

As opposed to switzerland or anyone else who does the same thing?

The country is becoming increasingly aggressive in its foreign policy.

Are they? Seems like we are the ones getting aggressive. Is china sending warships all over european shores?

He ultimately received a fellowship from the Chinese government to a university in Wuhan, for three years instead of just one, as originally planned. In September 2018, he flew to Wuhan, quickly made friends and fell in love.

So he got a fellowship from the chinese government and then criticized the government? What does he expect?

According to this telling, Gerber himself decided to terminate his studies at the university.

So he decided to quit?

While research freedom and the freedom of expression are important fundamental principles in the West

Is it? Because censorship seems to be rampant in the US but especially in europe. Give me a break, there are certain topics that are researchers simply won't touch.

Gerber saw an opportunity to position himself as a China expert.

Good one.

«I can say what I want here.»

But not "neo-nazi" stuff right?

In a report issued last year, the Swiss intelligence service warned that Chinese spies might be masquerading as students or researchers.

That's a certainty, but swiss spies and intelligence agents are masquerading as students and researchers too.

Everyday it's the same old propaganda.

He was referring to a specific tweet: a cartoon that Gerber had posted in response to another user's tweet. It depicted a comic character that had been altered and had stereotyped Chinese features, with yellow skin tone and slit eyes.

So he did post racist material on twitter after all.

«In retrospect, I realize I didn't question the rendering of the Chinese person enough,» he said.

Says the self-proclaimed china expert. It's always a certain type of guy. Always. And by the looks of it, it wasn't the chinese government censoring a nobody, but a student from canada who was upset about his racist bullshit.

I'm pro-free speech ( an absolutist ) but just can't stand the hypocrisy. This hypocrite supports censorhip and more importantly, this news company peddling this propaganda supports censorship.

"Ralph Weber, a China expert and professor at the University of Basel, is critical of Swiss universities for often failing to perform sufficient due diligence on their foreign partners – especially those from China."

This article and this "china researcher" are advocating for the exact same thing that they are attacking china for.

A tweet cost him his doctorate: the extent of China’s influence on Swiss Unis

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