CSUN Faculty at Odds Over China Policy Statement : Conflict: Critics say the original protest has become a salute to the government. Others say it’s more important to support the exchange program.

The author of a Cal State Northridge faculty statement condemning the Chinese government for last summer’s attacks on students disavowed the document Tuesday, complaining that it had been watered down almost beyond recognition.

Lawrence Littwin, a political science professor at the college, said he would not support either of two versions of the statement scheduled for consideration by the Faculty Senate Thursday.

“The heart has been taken out of the motion that I originally introduced, which contained a condemnation of the repressive policies of China,” Littwin said. “Now it sounds like a salute to the government.”

However, proponents of an amended statement said they want to support education in China rather than chastise the government for beating and killing student protesters. CSUN has an exchange program for faculty and students with 17 Chinese institutions, making it one of the most ambitious programs in the nation.

“None of us knows the policy in China. If we do not know what the policy of China is, how can we point our finger?” asked Paul Chow, a physics professor. “How are we going to help the students and our colleagues in China by pointing a finger?”

Chow and several other faculty members plan to propose the amendment Thursday, which reads: “This university believes that maintaining relations with educational institutions in the People’s Republic of China will promote and encourage the free expression and examination of ideas by all those participants in the exchange programs.”

The original statement, passed by the university’s executive committee last fall, also is before the Senate Thursday. It said that “the fact that this university maintains and encourages relations of any kind with educational institutions in the People’s Republic of China in no way indicates that this university condones the policies repressing the free expression of ideas of the government of that republic.”

Littwin said the executive committee’s version already was weaker than he wanted and, although he had previously approved it, he had reconsidered and would no longer vote in favor of it.

“Now I’m rather lukewarm to the entire thing,” he said.

Chow, who was in China on one of the CSUN exchanges when the protests began last June, said he feared any stronger statement would jeopardize the exchange opportunities.

Chinese faculty and students have continued to come to CSUN during the past months, Chow said. But systemwide, California state universities have been barred from sending faculty and students to China since the outbreaks, largely because of liability concerns. Stephen J. MacCarthy, spokesman for the Office of the Chancellor, said that moratorium is under review.

Littwin said he favors continued educational exchanges, but he said he felt the faculty had an obligation to CSUN students to speak out against the Chinese government’s actions against Chinese students.

“It’s not the exchange that bothers me,” Littwin said. “It’s the silence on repression.”