Eli Friedman, an associate professor at Cornell who oversees the program, said Renmin’s actions — including compiling a blacklist of student activists and allowing protesters to be sent home and monitored by national security officials — represented a “major violation of academic freedom” that Cornell could not tolerate.

“Their complicity in detaining students against their will is a serious red line for us,” he said.

Mr. Friedman said he had expressed his concerns this month to Liu Xiangbo, a vice director of Renmin’s School of Labor and Human Resources. Mr. Liu responded by saying that the students had violated disciplinary standards, according to Mr. Friedman.

The decision was a rare rebuke of China’s increasingly strict limits on human rights. Many American universities, seeking money and a global presence, have compromised on free speech values in forging partnerships with Chinese schools.

Despite the decision to suspend the program, which The Financial Times reported on Sunday, Cornell will maintain other academic programs in China, including a center in Beijing.

Cornell’s provost, Michael I. Kotlikoff, said on Monday that the university had an “an overarching commitment to academic freedom.” The suspension of the program with Renmin, he said, will not affect Cornell’s other activities in China. Those, he said, “continue to benefit our students, our two nations and the world.”