Hua Chunying File Photo

It's "another example of the US deliberately sabotaging China-US cultural exchanges" that the University of North Texas abruptly ejected Chinese scholars, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Tuesday.

The university reportedly announced on August 26 that it was ending its cooperation with visiting scholars who receive funding from the China Scholarship Council (CSC), and ejected all CSC-funded Chinese scholars from campus without any advance warning. 

"If such reports are confirmed, it would be another example of the US' deliberate sabotage of China-US cultural exchanges," Hua said at a press conference. "I have noticed that the incident has caused concern and criticism from some people in the US."

For a long time, Chinese visiting scholars have made essential contributions to the technological innovation and economic development of the US, Hua noted. 

"Regrettably, some extreme anti-China forces in the US, motivated by personal political interest and the strategic need to suppress China's development, have fabricated countless lies," Hua said, "They have stigmatized and demonized Chinese students, and maliciously suppressed Chinese scholars in the US on groundless charges, even using judicial power."

"I'm not sure how many Chinese parents are still willing to send their children to the US for study, under such circumstances," Hua said.

Openness, inclusiveness, and diversity were the founding principles of the US, but the US today is completely different, filled with hatred and xenophobia, Hua said. 

Hua urged the US to take a rational view of China-US relations and cultural exchanges, and work to facilitate mutual understanding, perception, and cooperation between Chinese and US people. 

"If the US is bent on going its own way, it is the US's own interests that will be sabotaged in the end," Hua warned.