0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
The Atlantic published a story today about a Princeton grad student named Xiyue Wang. Wang was born in China and moved to the U.S. when he was 20. He became a naturalized citizen and did graduate work at Harvard. After a year working for the Red Cross in Afghanistan he was admitted to a PhD program at Princeton in 2013. Then in 2015 Iran granted him a Visa to do historical research and study Persian in Tehran. At first everything seemed to be going very well but four months after he arrived he was put in prison. He would remain a hostage of the Iranian regime for the next 40 months. But in that time he says he came to see Iran for what it really is....President Trump eventually made a deal to exchange Wang for an Iranian scientist. In December of 2019 he was finally released. But when he returned, he found that the reception at Princeton wasn’t very warm.QuoteUpon return to Princeton, a faculty member greeted him on the street and said he was sorry about what had happened. Wang appreciated the sentiment, but not what followed. The professor attributed the ordeal to the Trump administration and to American spies’ infiltration of the Iranian state. Wang, he implied, had been mistaken for one. “I was arrested three months before Trump was elected,†Wang told me. “And I was told I was a hostage—that they knew I did nothing against Iran, and that I was nothing but a pawn.†He was galled. “This is what they believe at my own university! What are they teaching their students? The facts just don’t matter.â€Summing up the change in his view of Iran, Wang told author Graeme Wood, “I was f**king stupid. Unbelievably stupid. If I could go back, I would slap myself.†Instead he spends every day on Twitter commenting about Iranian policy. Here are a few recent examples:
Upon return to Princeton, a faculty member greeted him on the street and said he was sorry about what had happened. Wang appreciated the sentiment, but not what followed. The professor attributed the ordeal to the Trump administration and to American spies’ infiltration of the Iranian state. Wang, he implied, had been mistaken for one. “I was arrested three months before Trump was elected,†Wang told me. “And I was told I was a hostage—that they knew I did nothing against Iran, and that I was nothing but a pawn.†He was galled. “This is what they believe at my own university! What are they teaching their students? The facts just don’t matter.â€
