Pro-CCP Student’s Harassment of Pro-Democracy Activist Spotlights CCP Interference at Harvard

Various groups protested Chinese ambassador Xie Feng's speech at Harvard Kennedy College on April 20, 2024. Learner Liu/The Epoch Times

Commentary

Xie Feng, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, was disrupted by protesting student activists when giving a speech at Harvard University on April 20. During the protest, a young male student forcefully dragged a female student protester out of the venue, sparking criticism.

The security of Harvard University allowed a pro-CCP student to drag away an anti-CCP student, while asking other protesters to leave. The university is criticized for giving a respectable platform to someone who is a CCP mouthpiece.

An expert said, “They should be driven away and not allowed to spread lies.”

Xie Feng’s Speech Disrupted by Protestors

On April 20, Mr. Xie visited the prestigious university and gave an opening address for the Kennedy School’s China Conference 2024, an annual student-run event organized by the Greater China Society.

He was disrupted when protestors stood up one at a time, shouting slogans about human rights issues in China and holding banners reading “China Lies, People Die.”

In a widely circulated video on social media, a female Taiwanese student activist from Harvard denounced Mr. Xie’s complicity in tarnishing the freedom and democracy of Hong Kong, as well as extending the threat to her home country, Taiwan.

“Xie Feng, you come to paint your delusion of a ‘prosperous China’ when your hands are painted with blood. You robbed the Hongkongers of fundamental freedom and devastated their democracy. Now in my country, Taiwan, you sought to do the same,” she shouted.

The protesting Taiwanese female student was forcefully escorted out by a young, long-haired Chinese man, the video shows.

Man Forcefully Removing Protester Identified

Zhou Fengsuo, an exiled pro-democracy activist in the United States, identified the protesting Taiwanese female student as Cosette Wu, the co-founder of the Coalition of Students Resisting China.

Hoping to be a doctor since childhood, she was admitted to Harvard University’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Ms. Wu told Central News Agency, Taiwan’s national news agency.

However, shocked to hear of her great-grandfather’s suffering in Taiwan’s 228 incident in 1947, Ms. Wu felt strongly about the importance of protecting Taiwan’s democracy and changed her major to Economics and minor to Government when she was almost done with her freshman year. The incident refers to an anti-government uprising that occurred in Taiwan on Feb. 28 of that year.

The man who forcefully removed Ms. Wu was also identified.

According to Terence Shen, an online celebrity commentator posted on social media platform X, Ms. Wu was forcibly removed by Zou Hongji. Mr. Shen called him a pro-CCP supporter from Beijing who is studying international political economy.

Based on public information, Mr. Zou, along with his twin brother Zou Hongyi, are from Beijing. He graduated from the China-U.S. cooperative Duke Kunshan University in 2023 and then went to Harvard University for graduate studies. Articles about Mr. Zou and his brother can be found on the university’s website.

“While self-proclaiming as a world citizen promoting cross-cultural exchange, [Zou is] actively telling China’s story and acting as a thug for the CCP,” Mr. Shen wrote.

‘Second Party School of the CCP’

Sheng Xue, a Canada-based writer and media professional, analyzed that, in general, when protests occur at events, security or police arranged by the conference organizers are those who handle them. However, in this case, it was a Chinese student who skillfully and swiftly removed the demonstrators.

“This person reacted quickly and is likely to become a ‘wolf warrior’ cultivated by the CCP. Of course, he may not have a chance anymore, and I don’t think the CCP can afford to persist that long,” she told The Epoch Times on April 23.

Ms. Sheng said that while it’s common for CCP officials to encounter protests in democratic countries, this incident sparked outrage because “The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University played a very disgraceful role.”

The school has many long-term “cooperative projects” with the Chinese regime, and it helps train CCP officials in various fields. “Some people even call the Kennedy School the second party school of the CCP,” she said. “I noticed a long time ago that this school frequently holds activities that support communism.”

“Xie Feng is a spokesperson for an authoritarian regime, the mouthpiece of the CCP,” she said, adding that the role played by the Harvard Kennedy School was to give them a respectable platform.

Following the protest at Harvard, Mr. Xie responded in a post on X on April 22 that the CCP is “a champion for democracy” and that according to Kennedy School’s decade-long surveys, over 90 percent of Chinese people are satisfied with the central regime.

Ms. Sheng said that since CCP leader Xi Jinping cannot tolerate anyone expressing views different from his own, Mr. Xie can only serve as a mouthpiece for the communist regime.

“The Harvard Kennedy School’s survey said that Chinese people’s satisfaction with the CCP reached over 90 percent. The [Chinese] public ridicules this,” she said.

“The CCP is a one-party dictatorship, with no competitive elections in any form or content. Plus, there is censorship of speech and party-oriented news. All of these indicate that Xie Feng is lying, yet he boldly lies in the academic halls of the United States.”

Experts: Similar Protests Will Increase

Ms. Sheng holds that similar protests will increase as the CCP atrocities become increasingly recognized.

“For people [who support] a regime that is against humanity, they should be driven away and not allowed to spread lies all over the world,” she said.

Feng Chongyi, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, agreed that students from other schools may follow suit after this incident.

Students from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and the Uyghur community can all take this approach, which does not require many people and can done by individuals, he told The Epoch Times on April 23.

Mr. Feng noted that embarrassing situations for CCP officials have never stopped. However, the Xi regime faces containment and a blockade from the democratic world.

“They don’t care unless there is a real price to pay,” he said.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington and Harvard Kennedy School did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comments.

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