‘It is a shame that a U.S.-based Catholic organization has become part of China’s long-arm repression in the United States’
A prominent Purdue University professor had his keynote speech canceled after communist China government officials complained about his planned speech at a Catholic conference — in Houston.
Fenggang Yang, a Chinese-born sociology professor at Purdue University and director of the Center on Religion and the Global East, was removed by the U.S.-China Catholic Association from giving the keynote address at the organization’s biennial conference over the summer, according to recent reporting by LifeSiteNews and the National Catholic Register.
The conference, titled “Following the Way of Christ: Nourishing Trust and Friendship,” was held July 31 through Aug. 2 at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
According to emails obtained by the National Catholic Register:
The speech [Yang] had prepared to deliver, which he told the Register was “very non-political,” was titled “Transforming Guanxi: Chinese Christian Transnational Ties and the Making of Social and Spiritual Capital.”
On May 16, Yang was surprised to receive an email … “I am Peter Tan, Chair of USCCA. I just returned from China. While I was in Shanghai, I was confronted by two government officials regarding your participation in our conference. I would like to talk to you about it. Can we talk on Monday? Thank you. Peter,” read the email.
According to his biography on the USCCA website, Tan grew up in Singapore, graduated from the University of Hawaii, and is a Catholic convert.
In a subsequent Zoom meeting, Yang said, Tan asked him to consider withdrawing from the conference program. When asked, Tan could not identify the names of the “government officials” or explain the reason behind their request.
Three days later, Yang emailed Tan to tell him that he had decided not to withdraw from the conference. “After sleeping on it, I think we should proceed with the original plan — I give the keynote as scheduled on the topic in the program,” he wrote.
Tan responded in an email telling him that the decision to cancel his keynote address had already been made and that the board had decided “to remove you as keynote speaker to protect the future of the USCCA.”
Tan wrote that if Yang were to remain as speaker, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and the University of St. Thomas would “most likely ask us to cancel the conference” because “I had to assure them that we will not be in conflict with the Vatican’s position on the PRC or jeopardize the Vatican.”
What’s more, according to reporting from LifeSiteNews, Tan also removed from the U.S.-China Catholic Association the only board member “who opposed sinicization and was sympathetic to Cardinal Joseph Zen, persecuted Chinese Catholic businessman Jimmy Lai, and the entire underground Church.”
Yang told LifeSiteNews: “This made me wonder: Who is Peter Tan? Why does he take Chinese officials’ instruction to silence me for an academic presentation at a religious association’s conference? Is it a decision by the USCCA Board of Directors to cancel my keynote?”
“China’s transnational repression has become quite well known by now. Still, the willing cooperation of the USCCA with China’s transnational repression is disappointing and troubling,” Yang added. “It is a shame that a U.S.-based Catholic organization has become part of China’s long-arm repression in the United States.”
