Chinese students were forced to sign “loyalty pledges” to the CCP before going to Sweden, the report shows
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Several Swedish universities have reportedly discovered that over two dozen doctoral students from China were forced to sign an agreement pledging their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before arriving in Sweden.
Swedish newspaper Today’s news published a report last week detailing the documents it obtained.
The news agency stated that over 30 students had signed letters before traveling to Sweden through the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) operated by China’s Ministry of Education, which supports international academic exchange with other universities globally.
In addition to pledging loyalty to the Chinese government, the students must too “serve the interests of the regime” and “never participate in ‘activities’ that go against the will of the authorities”, according to Dagens Nyheter.
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The news agency claimed that the students’ families could also be bound by the agreement, saying that if the students go against the contents of the documents or if their education is “interrupted”, their families living in China could end up in “financial debt”. to the state.”
Additionally, family members were alleged to sign a contract that made them liable for damages if their relatives studying in Sweden do not complete their education.
A line in the document also stated that a student’s “guarantor, who is usually a close relative,” is not allowed to leave China for an extended period of time while the student is studying abroad.
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“This is exactly how dictatorships work, that the family is held hostage in the home country. It is unpleasant, says David Gisselsson Nord, vice dean for internationalization at Lund University’s medical department, to Dagens Nyheter.
The issue is said to have only come to light after a Chinese student at Lund University was discouraged from continuing his studies due to his poor academic performance.
“The student then became worried and said that the decision would mean big problems for his family in China, says Nord. “We were surprised, because we had never heard of such a contract.”
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After the incident, Lund University asked another student at the school about their documents and found that they also had the same letter from the Chinese government with them.
Reports about the letters began to spread and other Swedish universities soon after began checking their students’ documents. Some of the universities mentioned in the report are Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
“There are uncertainties, for example what is meant by going against the interests of the Chinese state,” says Bob Harris, rector of research studies at Karolinska Institutet, one of Sweden’s leading universities that regularly receives over 30 Chinese students through CSC.
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“For the time being, we have decided not to admit more PhD students via CSC, he says.
Uppsala University and Lund University said they will end all future collaborations with CSC after the discovery of the documents.
At the same time, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm is said to still be accepting applications from Chinese students through CSC.
In a statement, Stefan Östlund, vice chancellor for international relations at the Royal Institute of Technology, says that they have not found any evidence within their university that points to the existence of the letters.
“We are in talks with Karolinska and CSC about these letters, but in all the years that we have had CSC students, we have never heard or received signals that students would have been harmed because of these letters, says Östlund to Dagens Nyheter.
While admitting he can’t be “100% sure,” Östlund said Chinese-speaking university employees “never picked up signals” related to the issue.
Östlund believes that the line that students act in the interest of the state means that they must “behave and manage when they are abroad”, because other scholarship programs issue similar letters. He added that “all countries” just want their students studying abroad to represent them properly.
The Royal Institute of Technology has reportedly acknowledged the latest report and has already begun discussions with CSC.
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