Republicans target universities over China and political research

Republicans controlling the US House of Representatives are cranking up their investigative powers to attack universities and their researchers over political and foreign controversies, raising calls for institutions to push back harder.

House Republicans have been reviving a Trump-era tactic of demanding that universities explain their wide range of financial ties with overseas partners, especially those involving China.

Separately, Republicans have begun amplifying criticisms of individual researchers who have been studying political disinformation.

While the move to pressure researchers over work with domestic political implications is not entirely new, it is now being accompanied by official requests for in-person testimony in Washington that some academics see as intimidating.

“The fear is that it might cause new academics to not want to engage in this,” Alice Marwick, associate professor of communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said of faculty investigations around the US into misleading political rhetoric.

Orville Schell, director of the Centre on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, said Republicans were “not wrong in recognising that there is a problem” with China and its aggressive efforts to obtain information of scientific, economic and military value.

But, he continued, “they are perhaps a little bit extreme in their remedies” by taking too little care to protect parts of the US relationship with China that are clearly beneficial to Americans, even if a Trump-era campaign to investigate and arrest individual scientists has been widely discredited as having gone too far.

Research universities could help reduce China-related pressure from the government by getting together and producing clear guidelines for identifying what they believe are the types of research that should be considered open for sharing, and what kinds should be more protected from foreign eyes, Dr Schell suggested. Given the fast-changing nature of science, he said, such a structure would probably need to meet and update its assessments on a regular basis – in a way that’s far faster and more coordinated than government agencies seem capable of accomplishing.

Universities and the government could also be doing more to protect researchers studying political disinformation, Dr Marwick said.

The chief forum for the congressional investigations is a House committee created earlier this year by Republicans to examine and promote their allegations that the federal government and social media companies have been “weaponised” to silence conservative perspectives.

Leading targets include the Election Integrity Partnership, a project led by Stanford University’s Internet Observatory and the University of Washington’s Centre for an Informed Public, which has been reporting on the harm caused to the democratic process by organised disinformation campaigns.

Although it seeks to maintain a non-partisan perspective, the Election Integrity Partnership has faced rising complaints from right-wing activists because its conclusions have inevitably affirmed a marked preference among conservatives for strategies that mislead voters, Dr Marwick said.

Faculty associated with the project have started avoiding public comments on the matter, saying they feel personally threatened.

“There is certainly an appropriate oversight role for Congress,” said a Stanford spokeswoman. “But it is vital that such oversight be carried out in a way that does not chill freedom of inquiry and legitimate scientific research led by faculty at our nation’s universities.”

US universities generally, however, could do more to speak out publicly on behalf of their beleaguered staff, Dr Marwick said. And governments at all levels should exempt academics from public records laws that allow the disclosure of their email communications to anyone who asks for them, she said.

One University of Washington professor summoned to meet House Republicans has described suffering online harassment and threats to the effect that activists knew her home address.

“Universities should establish policies to protect their academic employees from harassment,” Dr Marwick said, “because this harassment using public records and subpoenas is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the kind of harassment that academics get online.”

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com