The law, which took effect last year, requires colleges and universities to get approval before hiring or working with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders.

  • The law requires colleges and universities to get approval before hiring or working with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders

  • A legal challenge filed by two graduate students and a professor argues, among other things, that the state law usurps the power of the federal government

Last year, with an eye to curb Chinese influence in the state, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill requiring state colleges and universities to get government approval before they hire or work with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders.

Since then, schools in the state have scrambled to comply. In December, Miami-based Florida International University paused the hiring of Chinese and citizens of six other “countries of concern” also targeted by the law – Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela – while waiting for the state university system’s board of governors to create a vetting process. ⠀

“Requiring the board of governors’ approval means it is next to impossible to obtain approval,” said Sumi Helal, a professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida.

Helal said he was “intent on leaving” the school. ⠀

Last year, DeSantis said his anti-Chinese influence efforts provided a “blueprint for other states to do the same”.

And according to political observers in the state, the governor may double down on his education policies. David McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, said that “being an education ‘culture warrior’” was a “perceived strength of his when conservative activists helped push critical race theory and anti-trans rhetoric and policies onto the political agenda”. ⠀

“Our academic community thrives on international collaboration. SB 846 is a malicious and xenophobic bill that directly attacks our community,” said Eva Garcia Ferres, co-president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida.

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  • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
    0·
    7 months ago

    I think it is time for China to leech off as much off USA and dispose and dissolve all relations with them, including a cutoff in academia spaces. This should provide a great blueprint for Indians, Koreans, Japanese, Singaporean and other Asian people to follow through, and utterly destroy and make USA a meaningless country.

        • Zink@programming.dev
          0·
          7 months ago

          Don’t they just take the genocide into their own hands though?

          And I don’t mean that as a defense of the US.

                • flyingjake@lemmy.one
                  0·
                  7 months ago

                  Hard to say China doesn’t do genocide when you consider the Uighurs and Tibet. I mean maybe you can have an academic debate over ethnic cleansing and genocide vs forced assimilation and population replacement but their hands and very far from clean on that spectrum.

                  • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
                    0·
                    7 months ago

                    Hard to say China doesn’t do genocide when you consider the Uighurs and Tibet.

                    Because of the Tibetan Freedom Concert and Adrian Zenz?

                    https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1309518541163581443

                    The Tibetan Freedom Concert was run by groups funded by the US govt’s regime-change arm the NED (a CIA cutout created by Reagan)

                    So many musicians fell for this US govt op, including Beastie Boys, RHCP, Tribe Called Quest, No Doubt, Björk, Yoko Ono, even Rage Against the Machine

                    Uyghur copypasta:

                    The US’s “Uyghur genocide” (“cultural” or otherwise) disinformation campaign has already been debunked several times over.

                    We see here for example the evolution of public opinion in regards to China. In 2019, the ‘Uyghur genocide’ was broken by the media (Buzzfeed, of all outlets). In this story, we saw the machine I described up until now move in real time. Suddenly, newspapers, TV, websites were all flooded with stories about the ‘genocide’, all day, every day. People whom we’d never heard of before were brought in as experts — Adrian Zenz, to name just one; a man who does not even speak a word of Chinese.

                    Organizations were suddenly becoming very active and important. The World Uyghur Congress, a very serious-sounding NGO, is actually an NED Front operating out of Germany […]. From their official website, they declare themselves to be the sole legitimate representative of all Uyghurs — presumably not having asked Uyghurs in Xinjiang what they thought about that.

                    The WUC also has ties to the Grey Wolves, a fascist paramilitary group in Turkey, through the father of their founder, Isa Yusuf Alptekin.

                    Documents came out from NGOs to further legitimize the media reporting. This is how a report from the very professional-sounding China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) came to exist. They claimed ‘up to 1.3 million’ Uyghurs were imprisoned in camps. What they didn’t say was how they got this number: they interviewed a total of 10 people from rural Xinjiang and asked them to estimate how many people might have been taken away. They then extrapolated the guesstimates they got and arrived at the 1.3 million figure.

                    Sanctions were enacted against China — Xinjiang cotton for example had trouble finding buyers after Western companies were pressured into boycotting it. Instead of helping fight against the purported genocide, this act actually made life more difficult for the people of Xinjiang who depend on this trade for their livelihood (as we all do depend on our skills to make a livelihood).

                    Any attempt China made to defend itself was met with more suspicion. They invited a UN delegation which was blocked by the US. The delegation eventually made it there, but three years later. The Arab League also visited Xinjiang and actually commended China on their policies — aimed at reducing terrorism through education and social integration, not through bombing like we tend to do in the West.

    • firewood010@lemmy.zip
      0·
      7 months ago

      US is bad, but China is even worse. I hope they both become weaker and split into smaller countries. Russia too.

      • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
        0·
        7 months ago

        No, China and Russia must become stronger and USA weaken. One of them has committed 100s of foreign interventions and dozens of genocides.

        • firewood010@lemmy.zip
          0·
          7 months ago

          Hell no. China is the worst world governor you could have. Please live in China for two years before saying that out.

          • freagle@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            Harvard conducted a study of Chinese sentiment for literally 15 years and found 95.5% approval among Chinese citizens of their national government and communist party.

            • firewood010@lemmy.zip
              0·
              7 months ago

              Ask the Chinese why they spent millions for a foreign passport now. Not everyone dares to say the truth when watched by the big brothers. My Chinese friends in the UK won’t even comment about politics on their Instagram public posts.

              • freagle@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
                0·
                7 months ago

                Maybe your Chinese friends are in the ultra-minority. Spare me your anecdotes. Read the Harvard study. 15 years of world-class research doesn’t fold to your friends in the UK