Syracuse University Falls for the CCP’s Narrative About Pandemic

China’s infiltration of America’s academic institutions is no longer deniable

A Syracuse Orange basketball game against Cornell Big Red at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, on Nov. 8, 2013. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

Commentary

According to the Syracuse University administration, there’s no difference between a person of Chinese descent and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Imagine being subject to such an irrational and destructive policy.

Canceling the Professor

Unfortunately, highly rated Syracuse chemistry professor Jon Zubieta doesn’t have to imagine it, because he found out firsthand. He was suspended by the university for using the terms “Wuhan flu” and “Chinese Communist Party flu” to describe the CCP virus (novel coronavirus) in his syllabus notes.

A handful of students complained, and suddenly, the tenured professor was suspended from his job. But in the minds of the offended students, even suspension isn’t enough of a punishment. The professor, they insist, should be fired.

How can this happen at a major U.S. university?

Well, per Karin Ruhlandt, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost John Liu, Zubieta isn’t only anti-CCP, he is guilty, by implication, of “hate speech” against Chinese.

“The derogatory language used by a professor on his course syllabus is damaging to the learning environment for our students and offensive to Chinese, international, and Asian-Americans everywhere who have experienced hate speech, rhetoric, and actions since the pandemic began," Liu and Ruhlandt said in a statement.

In other words, Zubieta is being canceled.

No Distinction Between the People, CCP

Somehow, the sins of Zubieta go beyond blaming the CCP for the coronavirus pandemic or by referencing the coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus.” The professor is accused by Ruhlandt and Liu of criticizing all people of Chinese descent, everywhere in the world, regardless of their political affiliation or national origin.

That accusation, of course, is false.

Not that facts matter to the Syracuse University leadership or woke students, but let’s look at some anyway.

The virus did indeed come from Wuhan. What’s more, the CCP allowed the local viral outbreak to become a global pandemic. Those actions include silencing doctors who tried to warn the world, lying about the virus’s human transmissibility, preventing U.S. doctors from examining the virus in its early stages, and allowing infected people to travel outside of China months after the outbreak to make sure the virus became a global pandemic.

The CCP’s travel allowances, of course, let infected Chinese travel to Europe and the United States. All of these policies were dictated by the CCP, hence the fault and cause of the virus and the pandemic lie with the CCP. That is why the professor is correct when he referred to it the way he did. There is no better or more descriptive name for it.

However, it’s apparent that in the view of Syracuse University, the monstrous people in Beijing that harvest human organs from living “donors,” who imprison millions of people in work camps, and who gifted the world with the coronavirus pandemic do, in fact, represent all Chinese people.

To the luminous leaders of the university, there’s apparently not even a sliver of daylight between the Party and the people it crushes and destroys. If you criticize the CCP, then you’re an anti-Chinese racist and an all-round appalling human being, and therefore, unfit to teach chemistry.

China Corrupting US Schools

But it’s not just Syracuse University that has become a mouthpiece and enforcer for the CCP. Even the most prestigious schools, such as Harvard, have been turned into politically correct research institutions that are aiding and abetting China’s rise to global dominance.

Perhaps even worse, the CCP’s influence has become widespread throughout the United States from primary schools to graduate institutions. Through such “cultural initiatives” as the Confucius Institute on university campuses and programs like the Thousand Talents, the CCP has succeeded in not only changing the perception of U.S. students and their educators toward China, but also bringing American students and researchers into the service of the CCP by providing them access to U.S. technology secrets.

Fortunately, both the Confucius Institute and the Thousand Talents programs are being shut down by the Trump administration. But the damage to our schools and universities from CCP-led corruption and the far-left political correctness that has warped so many minds remains.

Curiously, while Syracuse’s Liu, whose given name is Zhanjiang Liu, very publicly condemned and punished his colleague for false racial offenses, Liu is deeply involved in the Chinese scientific community himself.

For example, as well as visiting a number of Chinese universities in the past few years, he’s also a consultant for China Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology and is a member of the Chinese Natural Science Foundation, among many other appointments.

It’s important to understand that none of the Chinese scientific and academic institutions that Liu is a part of, could exist without the support and oversight of the CCP. And yet, there he sits, at the very top of the Syracuse University power structure.

Liu’s accusations against Zubieta—who violated no law—are, at best, hollow. At worst, they are a concerted effort to stoke racial tension and remove an anti-CCP influence. It would appear that it is a successful attempt to make Syracuse University just what the Party wants it to be.

In the meantime, Zubieta, who won the prestigious University President’s Award for Excellence in Research in 1988, the Syracuse University ACS Division Medal in 2004, and was named to the Faculty of 1000, Biology, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, remains out of the classroom.

James R. Gorrie is the author of “The China Crisis” (Wiley, 2013) and writes on his blog, TheBananaRepublican.com. He is based in Southern California.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.