Harvard University’s China Department has decided to move its China Abroad program from Beijing to Taipei. The university says that the move had been pre-planned and that the ostensible reason was an increasingly unfriendly response from their counterparts at the Beijing Language and Culture University where the students were housed. One of the “unfriendly moves” cited was that the Beijing university wouldn’t let the students celebrate Fourth of July as they usually did singing the National Anthem and eating pizza. Harvard attributes the attitude [correctly] to a worsening climate in U.S.-China relations.
The Harvard statement said, “We hope to lay a solid Chinese foundation for the outstanding Harvard students in NTU’s [National Taiwan University] free academic atmosphere,” indicating that there may be more involved in the decision than meets the eye.
