(FreedomBeacon.com)- The Yale School of Management is campaigning to boycott corporations who refuse to cease their commercial links with Russia, which might be challenging given the school’s ties to Chinese tech firms that refuse to divest.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, Yale has been praised for tracking corporations’ links with Putin. More than 600 corporations have broken connections with Russia, according to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale School of Management professor who maintains the list. He argued that consumers should boycott companies that do business with Russia.
According to the Yale list, Chinese internet titans Tencent and Lenovo are still operating in Russia. Tencent has many online streaming sites and WeChat messaging services. A hedge fund founded with seed money from Yale’s endowment was one of Tencent’s earliest early investments. Lenovo is one of the world’s foremost computer manufacturers.
The founders of both firms are members of the Yale Center Beijing advisory board, which the Yale School of Management runs. Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent, has donated to Yale Beijing Center. The Beijing Center has hosted Ma and events throughout the years, including Tencent executives, Chinese government officials, and Yale School of Management officials.
While Sonnenfeld admires Tencent and Lenovo’s entrepreneurial ambition and technological talent, he is personally dissatisfied with the public posture the present leadership of each seems to have taken on this Russian involvement.
Sonnenfeld went on to say that he is not authorized to speak for Yale or the Beijing Center.
Tencent has come under fire in the United States for assisting the Chinese government in the censorship of online information. After a league executive commended pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, the firm declined to show NBA games on its streaming service. The Pentagon has previously expressed worries about Lenovo technology, fearing that it may be used to spy on Pentagon networks.
