South China Morning Post: Scholars' arrest `causing more self-censorship'

Self-censorship among overseas Chinese academics has increased since the high-profile arrests of two scholars in the mainland last year, according to the Princeton University professor who was questioned for more than 40 minutes by immigration officials at Chek Lap Kok on Wednesday. Perry Link, professor of Asian Studies and co-editor of The Tiananmen Papers, spoke to members of the Foreign Correspondents Club about self-censorship among academics and journalists in their dealings with the mainland. He said scholars were being particularly cautious. The arrests last year of two US academics, Gao Zhan, based in Washington, and former City University lecturer Li Shaomin, who is due to leave Hong Kong tomorrow, had caused many overseas Chinese scholars to cancel research trips to the mainland. "At one major university a young professor made this decision, even though her research was on the Tang Dynasty," he said. "Her problem was not that she thought her topic would cause trouble, it was that she had no idea what
behaviour did cause trouble."

The vagueness surrounding the Gao and Li cases was not strange but part of the system of control. They were accused of spying and of collecting classified "internal" documents of the type widely used by academics and even available in bookshops, he said. Vagueness served to frighten people, put pressure on them to curtail their activities and allowed arbitrary targeting, he said. The fear today ranged from that of being arrested - as in the Li and Gao cases - to losing an official post, being banned from publication and, for those overseas, being refused permission to return to the mainland. Many academics visiting China received warnings that they should not behave in a way that could jeopardise their freedom to return or the interests of family in the mainland. Self-censorship had a far-reaching impact, he said. "It contributes to distortions both in Chinese perceptions of the West and western perceptions of China." The quality of academic study was affected when visits were not made, certain questions avoided or findings written up in less than candid fashion. Self-censorship also extended to non-Chinese academics with interests in the mainland. He quoted
the example of a well-known American specialist of pre-revolutionary rebellions in China declining to comment on the rise of the Falun Gong. "He didn't want to lose access to fieldwork in China by publicly discussing a politically sensitive issue," he said. He is not optimistic increasing links between overseas universities and those in the mainland will result in greater academic freedom. Foreign universities and China-related academic societies overseas were succumbing to similar pressures and avoiding contentious issues.

Professor Link has been refused visas to enter the mainland since 1996. The Tiananmen Papers, a collection of secret documents claiming to detail deliberations of top Chinese leaders during the 1989 pro-democracy protests, was published last year and is banned on the mainland.