Yet another high-profile NGO in China appears to have been blacklisted by authorities, as news emerged yesterday that Peking University had warned student groups to keep away from The Transition Institute, which researches and holds seminars on topics relevant to 'freedom and justice for a society in transition'.
The news was first leaked on Twitter yesterday as a self-claimed Peking University Chinese department student said all groups had received a message from the university's Communist Party Youth League's committee, asking whether any had come into contact with The Transition Institute 'in any form', from exchanges to jointly holding seminars.
'We have received notice from our superiors that an organisation named The Transition Institute has been using university student groups to hold sensitive seminars. The university has asked us to make initial investigations into this,' said the message, according to an e-mail that circulated among civil activists.
A Beijing-based lawyer close to the NGO confirmed the message was true, although the institute is still trying to investigate the exact source of the message and how many universities received it.
'This is a crisis for the institute, but they really want to keep the matter low-profile, since they still want to continue their work,' said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified because of possible reprisals. 'They are not sure why they are being targeted.
'All they are doing is research on public policies, and all such research is done openly and within government parameters.'