Chinese Students and Scholars Association

The Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association (official name: Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association: United for China's Peaceful Rising) is a student club, recognised and funded by the Student Governing Board.

Presence and mission

Prior to 2007, the CUCSSA included an "advisory board", which was, until recently, made up entirely of employees of a foreign nation's consulate. For that reason, the student club has been accused of being "an arm of the Chinese government" . After the shenanigans below, the club took on an OMA employee onto their board. The Chinese consulate officials dropped off shortly thereafter.

As of December, 2007, the CUCSSA appears to have revamped their web presence, possibly in realisation that the Cultural Revolution is over. They no longer identify themselves as "United for China's Peaceful Rising" (indeed, they appear to be in the middle of writing a new Constitution). Also gone are the dozens of pages of attacks on Falun Gong, replaced instead by exhortations to "[g]et started to outdoor activiety (sic) and enjoy all the fun" . Whether this is a genuine realisation that Mao is dead or just a Hundred Flowers-style trap to draw out imperialists and reactionaries into the open before they are served with peoples' justice to build a new motherland on the principles of socialist labour, peasants' rights, and resistance to foreigners and petty bourgeoise capitalism is yet to be seen.

Oddly enough, the CUCSSA's website appears to be blocked in mainland China. Who knows. Their antics have probably embarrassed the real Communist Party.

Falun Gong

Recent events and efforts of the club have centered around clashes with members of Falun Gong and with other members of the Columbia community. In fact, of the 10 items posted under "Lives in NYC" on the CUCSSA website, 9 of these 10 are attacks on Falun Gong. . Since it is a recognized group under the Student Governing Board, the organization appears to be a CU-funded arm of the Chinese Consulate focused on anti-Falun Gong manifestoes. And, during breaks from reprinting implausible copy from the Chinese Consulate, white water rafting.

De-recognition

In March 2015, various Chinese and English media outlets reported that the University de-recognized CUSSA (interestingly, no campus publication ran the story). A Columbia spokesperson gave Forbes the following quote: "Unfortunately, the ongoing violations of multiple financial and student organizational policies by CUCSSA persisted after the organization had been placed on probation, making the recent disciplinary action unavoidable."