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A Chinese state affiliated media outlet is calling George Washington University an “asylum for racism” after students put up posters made by a Chinese dissident artist that were critical of China’s government.
The op-ed, published by the Global Times, which is affiliated with the Chinese government, said “GWU asylum for racism reflects double standard of US society.”
“On February 3, a series of blatantly discriminatory posters insulting Chinese students appeared on the campus of George Washington University (GWU). The most malicious one depicted a curling player wearing a shirt with the Chinese national flag using the COVID-19 virus instead of a curling stone. Unsurprisingly, such a racist poster totally delegitimizing and demonizing China evoked the Chinese students’ rightful protest,” the authors wrote.
The posters were made by Chinese dissident artist Badiucao and were put up by students across the George Washington University campus.
The campus of George Washington University.
(Fox 5)
After the posters were put up, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at George Washington University, in Chinese, wrote that the posters contain “serious racist views” and demanded that the university “punish them severely,” referring to the individuals who put the posters up.
In response, George Washington University President Mark Wrighton wrote in an email that he is “personally offended by the posters.”
“I, too, am saddened by this terrible event and we will undertake an effort to determine who is responsible,” Wrighton wrote.
Wrighton backtracked in a Monday message to the George Washington University community and said that his original email was written “hastily,” and said that he supports freedom of speech.
“I want to be very clear: I support freedom of speech—even when it offends people—and creative art is a valued way to communicate on important societal issues. I also support the many students and faculty at our university who are engaged in researching, and actively advocating against, all forms of discrimination, marginalization, and oppression,” Wrighton said.
Students on campus at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Chinese government affiliated media outlet blasted Wrighton’s decision and said that he “suddenly turned his back on the Chinese students who pleaded with him for protection from racism,” adding that there is a “racist double standard targeting Chinese people in American society today.”
“Using ‘freedom of speech’ as an excuse to spread irresponsible lies delegitimizing China has actually been a common practice in the West for decades. GWU’s decision to grant asylum to hate speech is another shameful page in the terrifying phenomenon of racist double standard targeting Chinese people in American society today,” the article states.
The authors of the article also claimed that the incident shows that Chinese students were not protected by Wrighton.
“The sudden and fundamental flip of Wrighton’s attitude toward the posters also clearly demonstrates that much of American society today is so indulged in launching a witch-hunt against the Chinese that it cannot even tolerate a university president granting the minimum degree of protection to save students from racist demonization,” the article states.
Front page of the Global Times newspaper published on April 29, 2011.
(Photo by Simon Song/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)
Responding to the op-ed on Twitter, Badiucao said that the Global Times article is “pathetic.”
“CCP tabloid [Global Times] does not even have gut to show original art or admit they are my art, art from a Chinese dissident artist. All they do is cherry-picking my work out of context and skip entire set for Uyghur genocide, HK Tibetan oppression & digital dictatorship,” he tweeted. “[Global Times] would also never have the courage to admit actually the posters are celebrated by a lot Chinese students from GW who want CCP to be hold responsible for its human rights abuse.”
Patrick Burland, a student at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital that he’s not surprised by the “misleading” article by the Global Times.
“I’m not surprised that the CCP’s state media is desperately latching on to any false and misleading talking points to distract from their complicity in a genocide against the Uyghur minority, their intimidation of students, and suppression of dissidents around the world,” Burland said.
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report
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