How sour notes over proposed sale of iconic American choir college disrupt Sino-US relations
Reaction to rumoured sale of Westminster Choir College to Chinese buyer points to obstacles leaders face to deepen relationship at summit
Westminster Choir College is small compared to most post-secondary learning institutions. But that has not prevented a proposed sale of this school with fewer than 500 students from troubling the waters on which the Sino-US cultural relationship sails.
An American cultural institution with roots going back nearly a century, WCC was put up for sale last year. When rumours circulated that interested buyers included a for-profit mainland Chinese company, local media, some faculty members and other stakeholders sounded an alarm and took legal action.
The campus newspaper of Lawrenceville, New Jersey-based Rider University, which operates WCC as a programme on a separate campus within Rider’s Westminster College of the Arts, reported on October 3 that university officials “were seen touring a group of Chinese investors around the Princeton campus, stirring up controversy”.
A “teach-in” demonstration, which cancelled WCC classes one day last month, was part of an effort by some faculty members to get more information about Rider’s intention to sell the school, “with the expected owner coming from China”, the local Princeton Packet newspaper reported.
If the rumours prove accurate, WCC will become the first US higher-education institution to be sold to a Chinese entity.
The reaction underscores the obstacles that Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump face in their efforts to deepen a bilateral relationship that has been mostly one-directional: investment by US companies in China and goods from Chinese manufacturers to US consumers.