Higher-Ed Groups Are Warning Colleges Against ‘Surveillance’ of Chinese Academics. On Some Campuses, That’s Already Begun.

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Monitoring Chinese scholars in the United States could “trample on individual rights” and impede scientific research, a group of prominent higher-education associations said in a statement released on Monday.

The statement, published by the PEN America, a free-speech nonprofit organization, is the latest signal that advocates for American research universities are worried about higher education’s position in the cross hairs as political and economic tensions between the two countries heighten.

The statement’s signatories urged universities to “zealously safeguard their independence” by committing to academic freedom and due process, and by supporting student and faculty privacy.

“China’s government is notorious for its aggressive use of surveillance,” the statement reads, in part. “Efforts by the United States to fend off the global arm of autocracy must not mimic the very tactics it professes to reject.”

Some college presidents, in recent letters, have signaled support for their foreign scholars. But scrutiny of foreign visitors at American colleges has already escalated in this new environment.

Ohio State University late last year asked representatives of China’s New York consulate to leave the campus after earlier telling them their visit was not permitted. And the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s head of research said at an Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities event in January that the campus had added new policies for foreign visitors.

“We even show them to the restroom,” said Robert Nobles, the interim vice chancellor for research, “so they’re not wandering around campus.” He declined to comment further.

China and America are each other’s top research collaborators, and the continuing political and economic conflict between the two countries has strained scientific partnerships. Chinese enrollment on American campuses has recently slowed, a worrying sign as university revenue increasingly depends on tuition dollars.

The statement on Monday responded to an NPR story reporting that government intelligence groups had urged research universities to monitor students and visiting scholars linked to China’s government. Over the last 18 months, national-security experts have warned that campuses’ open environments, at the core of the identity of American higher education, could be exploited by foreign governments.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said it would add new scrutiny to research collaborations with China, and Emory University and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas pushed out scientists because they did not properly disclose their research work with China.

Monday’s statement said that agencies “need to clarify and specify their concerns, and ensure that their efforts do not trample on individual rights, nor on the principle of free and open academic inquiry and exchange.”

It was endorsed by groups including the American Association of University Professors, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Groups representing Chinese-American citizens, including the United Chinese Americans and trade groups for Chinese and Asian-Americans, also signed it.

Correction (8/12/2019, 3:40 p.m.): This article originally referred to PEN America, a free-speech nonprofit organization, by its former name. This article has been updated to reflect this correction.

Lindsay Ellis is a staff reporter. Follow her on Twitter @lindsayaellis, or email her at lindsay.ellis@chronicle.com.