Harvard language program relocates from China to Taiwan

An intensive summer language program hosted by Harvard University in Beijing will relocate to Taiwan in summer of 2022, as the U.S.-China relationship remains strained

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- An intensive summer language program hosted by Harvard University in Beijing will relocate to Taiwan in summer of 2022, as the U.S.-China relationship remains strained.

The program is moving to Taipei and will kick off next summer with about 60 students who will take eight weeks of classes, National Taiwan University confirmed Wednesday.

The decision was in part “due to a perceived lack of friendliness from the host institution" in Beijing, according to Harvard's student paper the Crimson, which first reported the move.

Every summer, according to the Crimson, the program “would typically host a small party to celebrate the Fourth of July, during which students and faculty would eat pizza and sing the national anthem.” But in 2019, the host university, Beijing Language and Culture University, said it could no longer host the event, Program Director Jennifer L. Liu told the paper.