Chinese student Yurong Luana Jiang. She gave a speech at Harvard University’s convocation on May 29, which has been the focus of both praise and controversy.
Yurong Luana’s speech came at a time when the United States has announced that it will “soon” cancel visas for Chinese students.
Yurong Luana said, “We do not rise by proving each other wrong. Rather, we rise without denying each other.”
Luana’s statement went viral in China. Many said her statement made them teary-eyed. But others felt that her aristocratic background did not reflect the true image of Chinese students.
Some in the United States have claimed that Luana and her family are related to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Many have accused Trump administration officials of tying Harvard to the CCP while trying to tighten the admissions rules for foreign students at Harvard.
Luana, who studied international development at Harvard, is the first Chinese woman to give a speech at Harvard’s convocation.
In her speech, Luana praised Harvard’s international education system and values, saying, “We have learned to share our joys and thoughts through each other’s traditions, and to shoulder the burden of each other’s world.”
The Chinese student also said, “If we still believe in a shared future, we should remember that those we label as enemies are also human beings. When we see them as human beings, we also find our humanity.”
Luana studied at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales for two years and graduated from Duke University in the United States.
A conservative X (formerly Twitter) account alleged that Jiang is a representative of a CCP-affiliated organization. Her father works for an NGO that plays a diplomatic role for the CCP.
This conservative account campaigned for Donald Trump. The account has 639,000 followers. It has previously posted controversial and sexually explicit content.
However, some Chinese social media outlets have claimed that Luana’s father’s organization is actually funded by various US companies and foundations.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify the claims from either side.
“This is why he went to the UK on a scholarship after school and then got a chance at Harvard,” wrote one user on China’s popular social media Weibo.
Another sarcastically wrote, “Such a talent should stay in the US. He shines abroad, stay away from us.”
However, many have taken Luana’s call for humanity seriously. One wrote, “She spoke about the hearts of Chinese students on an international stage, it brought tears to my eyes.”
Another user wrote, “You may not have been able to change them, but they listened to you. If more people like you keep speaking up, change will come one day.
There are currently about 6,800 foreign students at Harvard, which is more than 27 percent of the total enrollment last year.
About a third of these foreign students are from China, and more than 700 students are from India.
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