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The coverage of ongoing pro-Palestinian protests on America’s college campuses has been primarily focused on student protestors. But more and more are asking: where are the adults supposed to be in charge of schools, i.e., the professors and administrators?
Evidently, some professors have aligned themselves with the protestors and actively supported their cause. They’ve gone as far as providing exclusive lessons to protestors, canceling exams, and awarding favorable grades.
What about college administrators? Ben Sasse, President of the University of Florida, set a good example by showing that if adults in charge “distinguish between speech and action” and “say what they mean and then do what they say,” protests at UF didn’t get out of hand. Yet, too many college administrators are either cowards or embarrassingly incompetent. They seem unable to balance the need to protect free speech and maintain law and order on campuses, ensuring all students are safe. They chose not to discipline those who caused property damages and openly incited violence; they stood by idly as protestors in some colleges set up barriers to prevent Jewish students from entering; they first moved classes online and then canceled commencement ceremonies. All these appeasements have only fueled further unrest on campuses.
History has shown that the mob never spared those who appeased them. There is a Chinese saying, “Wei Hu Zuo Chang (為虎作倀),” meaning a person who rides the tiger as its accomplice to hurt others will eventually become the tiger’s dinner too.
Many Americans probably never heard of Liu Shaoqi, one of the founders of Communist China and the second most powerful politician in China between the late 1950s and early 1960s. Liu was born into a well-to-do family in China in 1898. His privilege afforded him an education not available to many poor Chinese. However, Liu became radicalized by left-wing ideology at school. After studying communist theory in Moscow in 1920, Liu returned to China and joined the newly founded Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. Liu gradually rose through the ranks and became the vice chairman of the Communist government in 1949.
Liu enthusiastically supported Chairman Mao Zedong’s disastrous economic policies, from the land reform that abolished land ownership to the Great Leap Forward movement. After Mao’s policies caused the Great Chinese Famine with an estimated death toll of 40 million, Mao was pressured to relinquish his Chairmanship while maintaining his demigod cult of personality. Since Liu took over Mao’s official head of state position, Mao resented Liu deeply despite Liu’s vigorous defense of the famine resulting from merely “implementation” errors. Liu also helped Mao persecute their comrade Peng Dehuai, a vocal critic of Mao’s economic policies, especially the Great Leap Forward. Peng was stripped of his titles and tortured to death.
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