Levin urges China to seek peace in Tibet
As president meets with ambassador, student-led petition calling for ‘open-minded dialogue’ garners 400 signatures
Amid growing pressure from students and others in the Yale community to speak out on the subject, University President Richard Levin has disclosed that he “expressed concern” last week to a top Chinese official about the recent instability in Tibet.
Levin, who has forged close ties with the Chinese government in recent years as part of his effort to transform Yale into a global university, met with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong in Washington, D.C., last Thursday to discuss Yale’s newest initiatives in his country. In that meeting, he and Zhou also discussed the situation in...
#2
By (Anonymous)
9:50p.m. on April 9, 2008
China should be scared to death if Yale threatens to cut its relationship with it...
Okay, this is a good first step. But would it kill the man to make a direct public statement about the matter? Something designed to focus public pressure on China, perhaps, rather than slipping under the radar (as the indirect disclosure of a previous discussion seems designed to do)?
Unless Levin is putting institutional force behind his private statements by threatening to slow or cut back developing Yale's relationship with China until the Tibet situation improves, I don't think I see the benefit of expressing concerns privately rather than publicly. Then again, I don't generally share Levin's beliefs about Yale's role in global issues, to say the least.