Government publishing office

56
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00060
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL
95248c-10.eps

---

57
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00061
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL
95248c-11.eps

---

58
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00062
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL
95248c-12.eps

---

59
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00063
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL
95248c-13.eps

---

60
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00064
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL
95248c-14.eps

---

61
Mr. S
MITH
. Dr. Martin, thank you so very much for your testi-
mony. And your full statement as well, I think I mentioned this 
earlier, as well as anybody else, will be made a part of the record, 
and anything you want to add to it, any extraneous materials. 
Ms. Cao. 
STATEMENT OF MS. YAXUE CAO, FOUNDER AND EDITOR, 
CHINA CHANGE 
Ms. C
AO
. Dear Congressman Smith and the members of the sub-
committee, I am pleased to speak today about the Chinese Govern-
ment’s policy on joint higher education ventures, its mechanisms of 
controlling them, the Communist Party’s presence in these ven-
tures, and the regime’s suppression of academic freedom in Chinese 
universities. 
China first set the rules for the joint-venture higher education 
programs in 2003. In 2010, China issued the National Plan for Me-
dium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development that de-
votes a chapter, Chapter 16 that is, to these ventures. The purpose 
of these joint ventures is to bring the best international higher edu-
cation resources to China. This includes bringing world-class ex-
perts and scholars to China to engage in teaching, research, and 
management, conducting joint research with the best universities 
in the world, all to advance the science and technology, and encour-
aging foreign universities to use their intellectual property as their 
share of investment in these ventures. 
When entering WTO in 2001, China promised to open its edu-
cation sector to foreign universities, allowing ‘‘foreign majority own-
ership,’’ but China has had no intention to deliver that promise. In-
stead, it set up joint ventures with the Chinese Government being 
the controlling party. The rules stipulate that the board of these 
joint ventures must have a Chinese majority and the president 
must be a Chinese citizen. Courses and textbooks must be filed 
with the authorities. These programs must provide courses known 
as political thought education to the Chinese students. 
The most insidious part of the control mechanism probably lies 
in the finance of these joint-venture universities. It is also the least 
transparent part. Financial dependence on the Chinese Govern-
ment, even if it is partial, puts foreign universities in the vulner-
able position where they may feel the need to conform to China’s 
expectations, not only on the joint-venture campuses, but also on 
home campuses. 
The 2,000 also joint-venture programs in China are mostly fo-
cused on advanced technology. Thirty-seven percent of them are en-
gineering, while literature, history, and law are less than 2 percent 
each. 
China is also bringing its quest for knowledge to the U.S. soil. 
Last year, China’s elite Tsinghua University, the University of 
Washington, and Microsoft launched the Global Innovation Ex-
change Institute in Seattle that focuses on technology and design 
innovation. In the Chinese press this institute was described as, 
‘‘An important step in the milestone of Tsinghua University’s inter-
national strategic deployment.’’ China is seeking to invest in the re-
search triangle in North Carolina and also establish innovation 
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00065
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL

---

62
platforms elsewhere in the U.S. with Chinese investment and the 
research expertise from American universities. 
Another component of China’s strategy is theft. Reports on this 
abound. For example, in May, Penn State University disclosed that 
its engineering school had been invaded by Chinese hackers for 
more than 2 years. Penn State develops sensitive technology for the 
U.S. Navy. 
China’s intentions are probably best illustrated in two incidents 
involving UC Berkeley. In November 2014, Peking University gave 
the president of UC Berkeley an honorary professorship, and they 
expressed the desire in ‘‘cooperation’’ on big data processing tech-
nology, which has wide applications. Three months later, a labor 
rights center in Guangzhou jointly established by UC Berkeley and 
the Sun Yat-sen University was forced to close as part of a system-
atic suppression of rights activities and civil society in recent years. 
Reports in the Chinese press confirmed the CCP presence on 
joint-venture campuses as well. From the Ministry of Education’s 
review of joint-venture programs in 2014, I quote:
‘‘Joint-venture universities have established the party commit-
tees so that there would be a party organization wherever 
there are party members, achieving the party’s no-blind-spot 
coverage on the grassroots level. Some universities have also 
established the overseas party cells to ensure that the party’s 
work remained synchronized with its work at home when stu-
dents study abroad.’’
In China’s current political system there has never been aca-
demic freedom as understood by Americans, though the level of re-
pression has fluctuated. Since early 2013, a CCP order known as 
Document No. 9 has shut down what little academic freedom was 
enjoyed before. The Christian Science Monitor reported recently 
that professors were fired or pressured to quit their jobs for expos-
ing liberal ideas and teaching them in the classroom. Trips to aca-
demic conferences were cut or constrained. Student reading lists 
were vetted for ideological content. On some campuses classrooms 
are monitored by surveillance cameras. 
Over the last 30 years the Communist regime has benefited enor-
mously from the unprecedented transfer of knowledge from West-
ern countries, much of it through joint business ventures and 
through theft of intellectual property. Many such relations have 
soured in recent years and the trend is likely to worsen. Now it 
seems that the Chinese Government is duplicating the successful 
model in higher education while pursuing an agenda to stamp out 
the Chinese people’s demand of freedom. 
I have no problem with the free exchange of knowledge, but I 
have a problem with freely providing knowledge to the Communist 
regime and to strengthen its grip on power. I have a problem with 
our institutions of higher education looking the other way as ter-
rible suppression of freedoms and civil society take place in the 
country. 
On a personal level, for the 3 years I have been an activist of 
human rights in China, all the peoples, I mean all the peoples have 
been in jail now. Some of them left the country for political asylum, 
but almost all of them are in jail. 
VerDate 0ct 09 2002 
14:25 Sep 29, 2015
Jkt 000000
PO 00000
Frm 00066
Fmt 6633
Sfmt 6633
F:\WORK\_AGH\062515\95248
SHIRL

---