How critics of authoritarianism are silenced in academia across the world

In the heart of Washington, D.C., on a prestigious college campus, a group of George Washington University students were outraged by the hypocrisy they believed underpinned the approaching 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. So they did what many of their peers do every day on college campuses: They spoke their minds and posted images, designed by Chinese-Australian dissident artist Badiucao, that satirized China’s human rights abuses and its upcoming Olympic Games.

In response, some of their peers called for them to be “punished severely” — and they almost succeeded. GW President Mark Wrighton said he was “personally offended by the posters” and directed campus security to find out who posted them. He then relented under heavy criticism. 

The backlash to GW students’ participation in the exchange of ideas brought to light a broader pattern of speech suppression at universities in the U.S. and abroad — a pattern that has, in some ways, gone under the radar. 

In my book, Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech, out this August, I investigate this pattern of suppressing speech critical of authoritarian governments, and uncover how universities sometimes even aid in this censorship. 

For over a decade, I’ve worked at the U.S.-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), where I defend the rights of students and academics being silenced for their speech, protest, research, and teaching. Over the years, I found that traditional flashpoints in American politics — guns, abortion, gender — were increasingly not the only ones facing censorship. 

More and more, critics of authoritarianism are being targeted

More and more, it has been critics of authoritarianism that have been targeted in this new era of campus speech suppression. International students from authoritarian regimes rightfully fear that their words and studies are being surveilled abroad, and that consequences may await them when they return home. In some cases, their own peers conduct surveillance against them. Academics worry that they will be denied visas, or jobs in already precarious fields, if they produce work challenging sensitive government officials. 

Meanwhile, university leaders quietly consider whether they should let academic freedom and free speech rights diminish so lucrative financial opportunities abroad can flourish. 

The most severe forms of pressure have either originated from or arisen in response to the Chinese government. For Authoritarians in the Academy, I spoke to academics and covered instances of retaliation, threats, and censorship related to the Chinese government at campuses in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. 

The problem is larger than the Chinese government, it is everywhere

But this problem is much larger than just the Chinese government. It’s an authoritarianism problem, and it is everywhere. 

Prestigious American universities have leapt on opportunities to expand their operations in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, sidestepping valid questions about the ethics of opening up branch campuses in countries with serious limitations on expression about religion, sexuality, and workers’ rights.

Graduate students and professors have been forbidden entry into Gulf State countries because of their religious views or topics of research. Administrators have canceled events about faith and LGBT issues because of local law and sensibilities. In one shocking case, a Ph.D. student from the U.K. was temporarily sentenced to life in prison on a trumped-up spying allegation. 

These encroachments on academic freedom were capped off by the rise of online education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — just as China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong. Suddenly, professors teaching online had to ask themselves whether their educational material would ultimately legally imperil them, or their students.

Authoritarians in the Academy details higher education’s failure to evolve in the face of authoritarianism today — and what we can be doing differently. It is a guidebook for how to protect free expression on campus and, by extension, preserve our freedom to criticize and challenge any and all dictators in our midst.