Purdue President Condemns Tactics Used to Censor Chinese Students on U.S. Campuses

The letter from Purdue University President Mitch Daniels last week was unflinching, unapologetic and unusual.

In a Dec. 15 letter to faculty, staff and students, Daniels described his regret that he’d had to learn from a ProPublica article that a Chinese graduate student had been harassed by other Chinese students and that his parents in China had been visited by the Ministry of State Security — all because the graduate student had spoken out “on behalf of freedom and others martyred for advocating it.”

Daniels condemned the “atmosphere of intimidation” as “unacceptable and unwelcome” on the Indiana campus. He warned that the students who’d made the threats would face disciplinary action and any student who “reported another student to any foreign entity for exercising their freedom of speech or belief will be subject to significant sanction.”

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