Originally claiming that Dundee staff looked forward to ‘national education’ events commemorating the Communist Party, a press release by the Central South University (CSU) was changed after a query from The Jute Journal.
The University of Dundee (UoD) asked CSU, its partner in the Dundee International Institute (DIICSU) campus in China’s city of Changsha, to correct its press release about Dundee staff’s visit to nearby Nanchang in mid-October.
Originally, the Chinese-language press release claimed Dundee’s Executive Vice Dean, Dr. Andrei Pisliakov, was looking forward to ‘national education‘ events. The statement centred around how nearly twenty of Dundee’s visiting staff, led by DIICSU’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary Gao Dongbo and Dean Gao Guangjun, joined Nanchang’s ‘eighth-round of national education activities for foreign teachers’. Aside from touring the Pavilion of Prince Teng, they allegedly commemorated the CCP’s Nanchang Uprising.
That 1927 uprising remains a central symbol of China’s People’s Liberation Army. Then backed by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow, the CCP waged the Chinese Civil War against the Republic of China Government at Nanchang, finally taking power in 1949. The original press release said visiting scholars ‘felt the ancestors’ revolutionary spirit’.
Translated to English, the original press release went on to say,
[Dr. Pisliakov] developed a fresher and more direct understanding of China’s revolutionary history and the excellence of Chinese culture, truly feeling the weight of history. He eagerly looks forward to the institute continuing similar national education activities.
When we in The Jute Journal asked the University of Dundee for clarification regarding this part, we were told that the Executive Dean viewed the event as a ‘cultural and historical visit‘, and that the CSU would amend its press release accordingly.
Indeed, that part of the press release now reads,
[Dr. Pisliakov] developed a deeper understanding of China’s history and traditional culture, and hopes more similar activities would take place to further exchanges between Chinese and foreign teachers.
Previous words about ‘feeling’ the ‘revolutionary spirit’ have also been removed from the press release, though it still refers to Nanchang’s reception as part of its ‘national education activities’ programme.
DIICSU is a Joint Education Institute where teaching is done by both UoD and CSU staff. As reported by the UK’s Telegraph and Sunday Times last November, the China Strategic Risk Institute (CSRI) think tank raised concerns about academic freedom and students’ rights across UK universities involved in Chinese partnerships.
A case study presented by the CSRI had found from Chinese-language press releases that the CSU has been putting all DIICSU students through military drills and ideological exercises for the ruling CCP.
Regarding that report, a UoD spokesperson had told The Telegraph that,
Cultural or military training activities do not form part of any course hosted by DIICSU [Dundee International Institute of Central South University] which consists of University of Dundee-equivalent modules only.
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