Today’s Focus: Harvard Receives Administrative Subpoena for Refusing to Provide International Student Data; CCP Spies Spread Worldwide, France Closes Multiple Secret Police Stations; Being in Debt Becomes a Trend, Debt Becomes a Norm, Mainland Chinese Citizens Overwhelmed.
On July 9, the US Department of Homeland Security, also known as DHS, announced that they have officially issued an administrative subpoena to Harvard University, requesting detailed information regarding international students.
In a press release, the DHS stated that they had previously requested Harvard to cooperate in providing the necessary data for the “Student and Exchange Visitor Program” (SEVP) certification in a “non-coercive manner,” but Harvard repeatedly refused to cooperate. As a result, the government decided to take legal action.
Assistant Secretary McLoughlin, responsible for this matter, stated, “We initially intended to cooperate with Harvard in a simple manner, but Harvard insisted on not cooperating. We had no choice but to use a firm approach to resolve this issue.” She criticized that Harvard University and some other institutions have allowed foreign students to abuse visas, propagate violence and terrorism on campus. If Harvard is unwilling to protect students’ interests, then the government will step in to do so.
In response to the government’s subpoena, Harvard University condemned the subpoena as “baseless” on the same day. However, they also stated that the university will comply with the law and cooperate.
According to current US laws, refusing to comply with an administrative subpoena could lead to serious consequences, including civil fines, criminal charges, being held in contempt of court, or triggering federal audits and investigations.
In their statement, Harvard University said they would firmly uphold the core principles of faculty, students, and the school community and resist the government’s overreach.
So why did the Trump administration target Harvard?
In October 2023, Palestinian Hamas attacked Israel, sparking the Gaza War. Subsequently, prestigious universities like Harvard saw numerous protests in support of Hamas, some of which spiraled out of control. The Trump administration believed that there were extreme rhetoric and potential security risks in these campus protests, hence deciding to focus on SEVP as a key target for rectification.
In April of this year, DHS Secretary Christie Nomm warned Harvard to provide data related to student misconduct. Failure to do so would result in revocation of their SEVP certification, which Harvard ignored. In May, the government revoked Harvard’s SEVP authorization. This means Harvard cannot issue visas to international students, impacting about a quarter of the student population significantly.
Harvard then fought back, filing a lawsuit against the DHS, alleging that the government’s actions were unconstitutional and retaliatory. The federal court in Massachusetts approved Harvard’s request, temporarily lifting the ban. Currently, Harvard can still admit international students temporarily.
However, the storm hasn’t subsided. The Trump administration warned Harvard University that due to Harvard’s failure to address anti-Semitism on campus appropriately, the university may no longer meet accreditation standards.
Currently, the US Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services have formally notified the New England Commission of Higher Education that Harvard University violated federal anti-discrimination laws. This puts Harvard at risk of losing accreditation. They urge accreditation bodies to cooperate with Harvard in resolving this issue. Failure to comply may lead to accreditation revocation.
Accreditation is a method by which independent organizations assess the quality of higher education institutions. If a school loses accreditation, students may not be eligible for federal financial aid. Even if students transfer, other institutions may not recognize their credits or degrees.
Recently, the French intelligence agency, DGSI, revealed that they discovered nine secret police stations operated by the CCP within France. The DGSI indicated that these covert organizations were used by the CCP to engage in transnational repression activities, targeting Chinese dissidents living overseas. Specific tactics included surveillance, intimidation, and coercing these individuals to return to the mainland.
The DGSI warned that although these police stations had been closed, CCP activities have not ceased. Many espionage operations now continue under the guise of “Chinese associations” or cultural organizations, serving the CCP’s security department.
French media reported that last year, Chinese dissident Ling Huazhan in France narrowly escaped being coerced by CCP agents to return to China. This incident, captured by French media throughout, caused an uproar and drew attention from the French political scene.
26-year-old Ling Huazhan, in an interview with NTD News, recounted that in March 2024, seven CCP agents forcibly took him to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, preparing to board him on a flight to Guangzhou. At the moment of boarding, Ling Huazhan managed to retrieve his passport confiscated by the CCP previously and successfully fled. This event, documented by French television, sparked significant public outrage and prompted the French political scene to take the CCP’s illegal activities within France more seriously.
French weekly magazine “Challenges” reported that in November last year, French parliament member Constance Le Grip questioned the Ministry of the Interior about the “activities and operations of CCP’s secret police stations within France.” In June this year, Le Grip finally received a response from the Ministry of the Interior.
According to “Challenges” magazine, these CCP secret police stations were actually set up by “liaison officers” dispatched by CCP local public security bureaus. For instance, as early as 2016, the Nantong Public Security Bureau, Wenzhou Public Security Bureau, and Qingtian County Public Security Bureau started establishing such institutions overseas. While these organizations appeared to serve overseas Chinese, they bypassed bilateral judicial cooperation mechanisms and were used to monitor, pressure, and even mobilize dissidents to return to China for trial.
In a report released in 2022 by the NGO Safeguard Defenders, it was revealed that the CCP had established over 100 overseas police stations across five continents in at least 53 countries.
The report indicated that similar organizations existed in several European countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, and Romania.
Initially, the French intelligence agency, DGSI, did not express great concern during the initial investigation. However, as the investigation deepened, they discovered that these actions were directly controlled by the CCP embassy, prompting intelligence units to realize the severity of the situation. At the end of 2023, the DGSI summoned a CCP representative, demanding the closure of the police stations and warning the CCP to cease illegal activities in France.
The DGSI admitted that while the CCP secret police stations no longer physically exist, this does not mean that the CCP has ceased monitoring and pressuring dissidents. There are currently undercover agents serving the CCP embassy or security department.
Laura Harth, head of the NGO Safeguard Defenders, warned that this is just the tip of the iceberg in the CCP’s global layout and urged relevant parties to be vigilant.
The Mainland Chinese economy continues to decline, and debt has become an unavoidable heavy topic. On social media, people are no longer flaunting wealth but rather showcasing their debt, comparing who has more. Posts are filled with terms like “salary cuts,” “layoffs,” “can’t pay off mortgages,” “provider cuts,” “it’s hard to survive,” etc.
Some commentators believe that this dark humor illustrates that debt has become a norm in China. More and more people are being pushed into debt by an invisible hand and trapped within. If not addressed, this debt will act like a “bomb” that could explode at any time.
Blogger “Big Disturbance” is a content creator specializing in helping debtors. On July 8, he shared a plea for help from a follower in a video. They mentioned having two houses, a loan of 1.2 million RMB, credit card debt of 35,000, and a credit loan of 400,000. While they can meet payments for mortgages and credit cards currently, they cannot repay other internet loans. They asked for advice on the situation as they could not apply for more loans due to reaching their borrowing limit, pondering if they should let internet loans be overdue until they can repay, whether overdue internet loans could lead to house auctions, and if they could possibly secure another loan. They also shared marital strains due to financial distress.
In view of China’s current situation, the British magazine “The Economist” published an article on July 7 titled “Why So Many Chinese People Are Deep in Debt.” The article pointed out that many Chinese are currently caught in a debt crisis, having to deal with aggressive debt collectors. With the economy faltering, the government urgently needs to boost domestic demand. Still, the increasing weight of debt on the middle class inhibits their consumption, shaking the foundation of CCP rule.
The article highlighted that the CCP government confronts a debt issue within the entire system, including high local government debts, corporate debts, and the fact that almost everyone is in debt. Currently, household debts in China account for over 60% of the country’s GDP, whereas in 2006, this figure was below 11%.
Bloomberg once reported that the real estate market crisis in China severely impacts the middle class, as about 70% of households with assets, including the middle class, are deeply tied to real estate. For every 5% drop in housing prices, around 19 trillion RMB of housing wealth vanishes.
Regarding the actual scale of debtors in China, official data has always been kept under wraps. Currently, one can only discern clues from statistics compiled by various organizations, but there are significant discrepancies in these figures.
For instance, according to the financial statistics report released by the People’s Bank of China for the fourth quarter of 2024, by the end of 2024, household loan balances in the bank system in China amounted to 89.7 trillion RMB, a 7.3% year-on-year increase. Yet a report from the People’s Bank of China’s Financial Research Institute estimated that the actual total debt volume for residents had reached 103.5 trillion RMB, a 15% increase above the central bank’s figures. Furthermore, a survey from the China Institute for Income Distribution Studies at Beijing Normal University suggested that household debt could potentially reach 200 trillion RMB, doubling the official figures.
Financial blogger “Border Chinese Say” pointed out in a recent post that the situation of “homeowners cut off” is the most tragic currently. These individuals are predominantly employed. Due to worsening circumstances leading to unemployment, mortgage repayment becomes impossible, leading to properties being auctioned by the court, wiping out decades of hard work in an instant. In 2020, the total number of foreclosed houses on Alibaba Auction reached approximately 1.33 million; by 2021, it had risen to 1.68 million. Yet, in 2022, the data on foreclosed properties was no longer disclosed. “One can only imagine how severe the foreclosures must be for the CCP government to refrain from disclosing the figures.”
“Border Chinese Say” speculated that the actual number of foreclosed houses reached between 3.2 to 3.8 million in 2022; by 2023, at least over 5 million; and by 2024, the number of foreclosed houses had surpassed estimation.
Some observers noted that when the government begins deliberately concealing this data, it indicates that the problems have reached the brink of explosion. In other words, these debts, like ticking time bombs, could potentially detonate anytime.
——”Epoch Focus” Production Team