TheChinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA;Chinese:中国学生学者联合(谊)会;pinyin:zhōngguó xuéshēng xuézhě liánhé (liányí) huì) is the official organization foroverseas Chinese students and scholars registered in most colleges and universities outside of thePeople's Republic of China. The associations in different institutions share a common name. The stated function of CSSAs is helping overseas Chinese in their life, study, work, and other issues, bringing Chinese students together on campus, serving as a bridge between Chinese and other communities, and promotingChinese culture. The groups typically host events such as annualChinese New Year galas, holiday celebrations, academic forums and talent recruitment competitions tied to theThousand Talents Plan.[1][2][3]
Journalists and human rights groups have described CSSAs asgovernment-organized non-governmental organizations used to surveil and report on Chinese students abroad.[4][5] According to theUnited States Department of State, "theCCP created the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) to monitor Chinese students and mobilize them against views that dissent from the CCP’s stance."[6]
A 2018 report by theUnited States-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated, "[d]espite the useful social services CSSAs provide for their members, they receive guidance from the CCP through Chinese embassies and consulates — governmental ties CSSAs frequently attempt to conceal — and are active in carrying out overseas Chinese work consistent with Beijing’sUnited Front strategy."[9]
The CSSAs are collectively overseen by theChinese Communist Party'sUnited Front Work Department.[9][10][11] Individual CSSAs are sponsored and monitored by Chinese embassy and consular officials, as the Chinese government has a consistent policy toward Chinese students and scholars since the 1990s.[12][13][14][15] In some cases, the local Chinese consulate must approve CSSA presidential candidates.[9]: 11 Documents and emails obtained byForeign Policy in 2018 showed that theGeorgetown University CSSA accepted funding from theChinese embassy in Washington, D.C., which amounted to roughly half its total annual budget.[3]
CSSAs have been criticized for trying to control and monitor the speech of Chinese students and professors, and for involvement in espionage in various countries including Canada, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.[16][17][18][19] Some CSSA branches have also pressured their host universities to cancel talks relating toTibet, theChinese democracy movement,Uyghurs, theHong Kong protests, and thepersecution of Falun Gong.[16][20][21]
In 2011,Cambridge University disbanded their CSSA chapter after the society's president, Chang Feifan (常非凡), announced that she would enter a second term without election, and refused to provide the university a copy of the society's constitution. Some students and staff alleged that the CSSA was controlled by the Chinese embassy, and that the embassy had advised the CSSA president to continue her reign without holding an election.[22]
In 2015,Columbia University briefly shuttered its CSSA chapter after violations of multiple financial and student organizational policies.[13]
In 2016, President of theAustralian National University CSSA chapter Tao Binru publicly confronted the university pharmacy for stockingThe Epoch Times, a newspaper known for its opposition to the Chinese Communist Party. The pharmacist claimed to be intimidated by Tao's body language and allowed him to throw out the newspapers. The previous year, Tao had told Chinese media that, "‘What [Chinese students] day and night long for is the ‘China Dream’ that General SecretaryXi Jinping speaks of – serving the rejuvenation of the nation and the people with unremitting efforts. Even though our bodies are overseas, our hearts are tied to the Motherland’."[23][24]
In a 2017New York Times article, chapters of CSSA were described as having "worked in tandem with Beijing to promote a pro-Chinese agenda and tamp down anti-Chinese speech on Western campuses."[16] TheUniversity of California, San Diego chapter protested the university's decision to invite the14th Dalai Lama to speak at its 2017 commencement.[25]
CSSAs became a subject in vice presidentMike Pence's October 2018 policy speech on China.[28]
In 2019,Human Rights Watch called for closer monitoring of CSSAs in response to threats to academic freedom.[29] In 2019, the CSSA chapter atMcMaster University accused a local Uyghur-Canadian activist of fomenting "separatism" after her speech drawing attention to human rights violations in Xinjiang.[30][31] The CSSA chapter subsequently had its status as a student organization revoked since its coordination with the PRC consulate was deemed a violation of student club rules.[32][33]
In 2021, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting instances of CSSAs being used to monitor Chinese university students abroad.[5][35]
In 2022, the president ofGeorge Washington University reversed a decision to remove posters by Chinese political cartoonistBadiucaocritical of the 2022 Winter Olympics following initial complaints by the local CSSA chapter.[36][37] In 2023, Chinese international students at George Washington University formed an independent alternative to the local CSSA chapter called Torch on the Potomac.[38]
In July 2023, Hong Kong students and human rights activists protested the CSSA at theUniversity of Queensland.[39]
^"CSSAs in USA".The Office of Educational Affairs of the Embassy of P.R.China in USA. Archived fromthe original on September 18, 2015. RetrievedOctober 9, 2015.
^Xiaojun, Yan; Alsudairi, Mohammed (September 3, 2021). "Guarding Against the Threat of a Westernising Education: A Comparative Study of Chinese and Saudi Cultural Security Discourses and Practices Towards Overseas Study".Journal of Contemporary China.30 (131):803–819.doi:10.1080/10670564.2021.1884962.ISSN1067-0564.
^Dorfman, Zach (July 27, 2018)."How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies".Politico.Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. RetrievedDecember 12, 2023.In one case in the mid-2000s in the Midwest, a student affiliated with a CSSA reported another Chinese student's contact with the FBI to an MSS officer operating under diplomatic cover in Chicago, said a former intelligence official. The student was quickly flown out of the country. And, roughly half a decade ago in the Bay Area, counterintelligence officials believed that a graduate student affiliated with the Berkeley CSSA was working for the MSS, and reporting on the activities of other Chinese students on campus, said another former official.
