Chinese Students and Scholars Association

A 2018 report by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated, "[d]espite the useful social services CSSAs provide for their members, they receive guidance from the CCP through Chinese embassies and consulates — governmental ties CSSAs frequently attempt to conceal — and are active in carrying out overseas Chinese work consistent with Beijing’s United Front strategy."[9]

The CSSAs are collectively overseen by the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department.[9][10][11] Individual CSSAs are sponsored and monitored by Chinese embassy and consular officials, as the Chinese government has a consistent policy toward Chinese students and scholars since 1990.[12][13][14] In 2005, a local CSSA in Leuven was reported to be used as a front organization for industrial espionage.[15] Documents and emails obtained by Foreign Policy in 2018 showed that the Georgetown University CSSA accepted funding from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., which amounted to roughly half its total annual budget.[3] The organization has been criticized for trying to control and monitor the speech of Chinese students and professors in Western countries, and for involvement in espionage in various countries including Canada, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.[16][17][15][18]

In 2011, Cambridge University disbanded their CSSA chapter after the society's president, Chang Feifan (常非凡), announced that she would enter a second term without election, and refused to provide the university a copy of the society's constitution. Some students and staff alleged that the CSSA was controlled by the Chinese embassy, and that the embassy had advised the CSSA president to continue her reign without holding an election.[19]

In 2015, Columbia University disbanded their CSSA chapter after violations of multiple financial and student organizational policies.[20]

In 2016, President of the Australian National University CSSA chapter Tao Binru publicly confronted the university pharmacy for stocking The Epoch Times, a newspaper known for its opposition to the Chinese Communist Party. The pharmacist claimed to be intimidated by Tao's body language and allowed him to throw out the newspapers. The previous year, Tao had told Chinese media that, "‘What [Chinese students] day and night long for is the ‘China Dream’ that General Secretary Xi Jinping speaks of – serving the rejuvenation of the nation and the people with unremitting efforts. Even though our bodies are overseas, our hearts are tied to the Motherland’."[21][22]

In a 2017 New York Times article, chapters of CSSA were described as having "worked in tandem with Beijing to promote a pro-Chinese agenda and tamp down anti-Chinese speech on Western campuses."[17] The University of California, San Diego chapter protested the university's decision to invite the 14th Dalai Lama to speak at its 2017 commencement.[23]

In 2017, the CSSA chapter at the University of Maryland attacked a commencement speech delivered by a Chinese student, which praised freedom of speech, following similar criticism of the speech by Chinese state media.[24]

CSSAs became a subject in vice president Mike Pence's October 2018 policy speech on China.[25]

In 2019, Human Rights Watch called for closer monitoring of CSSAs in response to threats to academic freedom.[26] In 2019, the CSSA chapter at McMaster University accused a local Uyghur-Canadian activist of fomenting "separatism" after her speech drawing attention to human rights violations in Xinjiang.[27][28] The CSSA chapter subsequently had its status as a student organization revoked since its coordination with the PRC consulate was deemed a violation of student club rules.[29][30]

In 2020, Canada's National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians stated that the CSSAs "behavior may also pose a threat to freedom of speech and assembly."[31]

In 2021, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting instances of CSSAs being used to monitor Chinese university students abroad.[5][32]

In 2022, the president of George Washington University reversed a decision to remove posters by Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao critical of the 2022 Winter Olympics following initial complaints by the local CSSA chapter.[33][34] In 2023, Chinese international students at George Washington University formed an independent alternative to the local CSSA chapter called Torch on the Potomac.[35]

In July 2023, Hong Kong students and human rights activists protested the CSSA at the University of Queensland.[36]

• United Front Work Department
• Overseas censorship of Chinese issues