80
travelling
to Beijing, just to say: Please, cease and desist, don’t kill
that baby simply because the authorization wasn’t given out.
What does the clinic do? Do they inform government officials? Do
they try to hide it?
Mr. L
EHMAN
. So our clinic does not provide abortion services. To
my knowledge, none of our students have gotten pregnant. If one
of our students got pregnant, we would have absolutely no role in
enforcing the one-child policy. We are not an arm of the govern-
ment, Chairman Smith. We are a university.
Mr. S
MITH
. I understand. But my hope would be that you
wouldn’t—I mean, that woman is immediately at risk, and she will
be forcibly to be aborted. And a student, obviously marriages are
not even allowed to occur until 25. I read your Statement of Labor
Values. You have a section on protecting women’s rights.
Mr. L
EHMAN
. Yes.
Mr. S
MITH
. You do put in provided
by PRC law should be pro-
tected, talking about pregnancy, childbirth. But, again, the dark
side of Chinese law when it comes to women and children is—one
of them—is this terrible one-child-per-couple policy.
If you could check to see what happens if a woman presents,
same with Dr. Martin, so that we are no way complicit.
[The information referred to follows:]
W
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ARTIN
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.D.,
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URING THE
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EARING BY THE
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ONORABLE
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Fort Hays State University (FHSU) has partnerships with one public and one pri-
vate University in China. Faculty are hired by FHSU to teach in China on the cam-
pus of the partner Universities. As such, they are FHSU employees and they are
responsible only to FHSU. They have no reason to report any situation to Chinese
authorities.
Mr. L
EHMAN
. I will certainly check, Chairman Smith.
Mr. S
MITH
. Because that is, you know, there is a child’s life and
a mother’s life at risk.
Mr. L
EHMAN
. I will check and confirm that we are in no way
complicit.
W
RITTEN
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ESPONSE
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ECEIVED FROM
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. J
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S. L
EHMAN TO
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URING THE
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EARING BY THE
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ONORABLE
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I
have double checked and, as I testified, there is no requirement that NYU
Shanghai report pregnancies to Chinese officials.
Mr. S
MITH
. That would be very good. I appreciate that.
Ms. M
ARTIN
. Mr. Chairman, unlike NYU, of course, you realize
that Fort Hays State University partners with the institutions. So
the program is owned in its totality by the institution, but it is de-
livered on a host campus, so to speak. So there are other students
on that campus. As a matter of fact, Sias International University
has about 30,000
students on its campus, and only a very small mi-
nority of those students are actually part of the program.
So to the extent that the communications take place within our
faculty and our students, their ability to discuss anything has
never been an issue. The scholarship, their willingness and ability
to discuss things, as you have discussed, from the Bill of Rights all
the way up to more sensitive issues, have never met opposition by
any of the government.
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81
And to that extent, one of the things
that we feel very privileged
to be able to do is to expand the mind of the students. I said to
somebody the other day: If you understand why people do what
they do and you understand the human nature of people, then you
are able to put them in context and not judge them as bad or good,
but rather create a system whereby you can expand your view of
the world. And that is what our faculty try to do in China, and
they do it very well.
And addressing your statement about spiritual or religious free-
dom, they are very well able to practice their religion. Clearly there
is not a Catholic church that they can go into in their neighbor-
hood, but they are able to practice their religion within their own
homes.
Mr. S
MITH
. Before going to Mr. Sherman, I do have some other
questions that I will finish with.
But under number five, protecting
women’s rights, NYU’s Statement of Labor Values, it says: ‘‘Wom-
en’s rights during pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing period will be
protected as provided by PRC law.’’
That is the problem, the PRC law, which is outrageously uneth-
ical, immoral, and out of any human rights norms, even according
to U.N. principles, Cairo Population, ICPD, or anything else, be-
cause
it is forced, it is coerced. And so what does that mean, ‘‘as
provided by PRC law,’’ in your statement?
Mr. L
EHMAN
. I wasn’t part of the drafting of that, but my under-
standing, at least the way I understand it, is under Chinese law,
after you give birth you are entitled to paid leave. And I don’t
know, I think it may be 4 months. And so I think this is guaran-
teed paid leave.
Mr. S
MITH
. But it does say during pregnancy as well. PRC law
during pregnancy makes that child at the gravest risk of extermi-
nation at any time during their life on the planet.
Mr. L
EHMAN
. I believe, Chairman Smith, that that provision is
intended—I think it is framed in terms
of protecting the rights of
the woman, I believe. And so I think what that is intended to do
is to say to the extent that Chinese law creates a floor under the
rights of the woman, those will absolutely be respected. And that
is not only by NYU Shanghai, but by anyone who deals with NYU
Shanghai.
Mr. S
MITH
. Okay. But, again, we are talking the rights of the
women here would be coercive population control, including forced
sterilization and forced abortion, which is so egregious, at Nurem-
berg, at
the Nazi war crimes tribunal, it was construed to be a
crime against humanity, which it is. Twice the U.S. Congress has
called it a crime against humanity.
So my point is, if you could clarify that for us, what do you mean
by that? Because if it just means enforcing—and this is what I
have gotten from many businesses operating in China, it is what
we got from Google when we talked about the issue of censorship,
a different issue, of course, that they
were just following law as
promulgated by the PRC.
Mr. L
EHMAN
. So the point of the Statement of Labor Values, and
it is comparable to the one that I believe was praised by Human
Rights Watch as it was applied in Abu Dhabi, the point of this is
to ensure that workers on projects associated with NYU Shanghai
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