Why is no one talking about an academic boycott against China?

UU employees were recently asked to sign a petition calling on the Executive Board to sever all institutional ties with Israeli institutions. The authors argue that, though the university community should consider other conflicts, the situation in Gaza is different and therefore requires more decisive and rapid action. In other words, cutting all ties with institutions from Israel. I quote: “Academic freedom should never be a licence for institutions such as universities to remain neutral in situations where an urgent moral appeal is made to them”.

I believe there is no reason to doubt that the Israeli government is guilty of serious human rights violations, which may even be classified as “genocidal”. A call to sever ties with Israeli institutions could indeed be an appropriate expression of concern.

The authors argue that the same applies to Russia and Myanmar. It is precisely the addition of these two countries that makes it difficult for me to assess the extent to which we are prepared to apply our principles generally when it comes to human rights violations.

Russia and Myanmar are clear cases, but in Russia's case, as the authors themselves point out, sanctions have already been imposed by the government. As for Myanmar, with all due respect, the country does not have many relevant academic partnerships. What about China? Everyone knows this country has also been guilty of serious, large-scale human rights violations for decades and that academic freedom is severely restricted there. I would consider it brave if we, the UU community, were prepared to scrutinise China as well and attach comparable consequences if violations of our standards and values were found. However, those consequences would be of a different order because China is an academic heavyweight. Maybe that's why we are not addressing the elephant in the room? I hope not.

This op-ed was submitted to DUB by Guus de Krom, Assistant Professor at University College Utrecht. The views expressed above belong to the author only and are not necessarily shared by DUB.