The university’s high-level embrace of Chan is conspicuous.
Columbia University hosted a high-profile lecture featuring a Hong Kong real estate tycoon behind the censorship of a pro-democracy activist. The school’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, delivered opening remarks for the high-profile event in the university’s Low Library venue — a treatment typically afforded to visiting world leaders.
Ronnie Chan, the tycoon, has deep ties to the authoritarian city’s pro-Beijing establishment — and was a key supporter of backer of Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, who led the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement and was sanctioned by the U.S. government over it in 2020. He is also connected to the Chinese Communist Party’s united front political influence apparatus. At Columbia, he delivered a talk titled “The Past, Present, and Future of U.S.-China Relations.”
Representative John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House select committee on the CCP, and Mark Simon, who is the top adviser to Hong Kong pro-democracy icon Jimmy Lai, condemned the Columbia event, which follows the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists last month on spurious charges related to their political activities. Armstrong’s appearance at the event coincided with the 100th day of the trial of media icon Jimmy Lai, who was arrested on charges related to pro-democracy demonstrations in the city.
On Tuesday night, a Columbia spokesperson defended the decision to invite Chan, and did not distance the university from his pro-Beijing activities, in response to questions from National Review. A reporter asked if Columbia was previously aware of Chan’s ties to the united front and role in censoring pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong.
“Columbia invites influential figures from across the globe to engage with our University community, in support of the institution’s larger academic mission to teach, create, and advance knowledge, and that mission is grounded in a fundamental commitment to free expression, open inquiry, and vigorous debate,” the spokesperson responded.
The Chan event marks an early, high-profile move by Armstrong, who stepped into the university presidency after pro-Hamas campus unrest and subsequent congressional inquiries led to the abrupt resignation of former president Minouche Shafik over the summer.
In her remarks Monday, Armstrong called Chan’s appearance a “wonderful example” of the types of dialogues the school can host.
A flyer promoting the talk, organized by the school’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, described Chan as an expert on U.S.-China relations who would “share his views on the evolving dynamics that will shape the future of global politics.”
Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, a supporter of China’s communist leadership and other U.S. adversary governments, also delivered opening remarks. He characterized Chan as a “great leader” who has helped to “bridge the United States and China in the most constructive ways.” He said that Chan was a senior advisor to the Chinese government and that he met the Hong Konger through the China Development Research Foundation, a Chinese government-tied organization with which they have both been affiliated.
“Columbia is well aware of the depths to which CCP apologist Jeffrey Sachs will dive to in covering China’s human rights abuses,” said Simon, the Lai advisor, referring to Sachs’s history of pro-Beijing commentary with Chinese state media outlets. Sachs has sided with Beijing on its abuses against Uyghurs.
The university’s high-level embrace of Chan is conspicuous for additional reasons. He’s best known to Americans in the context of his pro-Beijing leanings and his history as a director of Enron, and a member of that company’s board of auditors at the time of the fraudulent energy firm’s collapse. Chan is a governor of the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, a Hong Kong nonprofit founded by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa and tied to Beijing’s united front political-influence ecosystem.
Chan has also previously leveraged his philanthropic activities to influence the work of U.S. think tanks, including the Asia Society, where he was co-chairman. In 2017, a New York Times article implicated him in the cancellation of a planned appearance by Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy leader, at the Asia Society’s Hong Kong Center. According to the Times, Chan later defended the decision, saying: “Why would we be dragged into local politics?”
“By allowing Chan to speak on Columbia’s campus just days after the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, Columbia is giving a voice to those who actively suppress the voices of others,” Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, told National Review.
“This is wrong and Columbia should reexamine its guest list for this speaker series going forward.”
Simon said it “would take ten minutes to know where Ronnie Chan stands on democracy and human rights” and referred to the event as “another stain on the school’s human rights record.”
In June, a Chinese student at Columbia appeared in disguise before a congressional panel and said that the university’s administration took “no action” after one of her friends was assaulted at a demonstration on campus protesting the Chinese government’s zero-Covid policy.