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“A fundamental question is whether the university wishes to be proactive in some of these issues in our community and internationally or be reactive to events as they unfold,” he wrote.

Photo by Mark van Manen/Postmedia/File

Meigan Aronson, dean of science, was eager to lend the voice of concerned scientists.

“Science has a lot at stake and much to contribute to trying to keep doors open to our colleagues in China,” she wrote.

Murali Chandrashekaran, vice-provost international, chimed in, saying the discussion needed to include the wider campus community.

“We will certainly involve our science community fast, but it also involves a conversation for all of UBC, given our significant reliance on China for students/$.”

A few weeks later, Chandrashekaran, responding to a request from Andrew Szeri, UBC’s vice-president academic, outlined potential impacts on the school’s annual Vancouver Summer Program, a four-week program that invites international students to take courses while learning about Canadian culture and society.

He noted that fees in 2018 were $5,100 per student. Based on enrolment data that year, “the full exposure envelope is $10M, with some faculties bearing more of that than others,” he wrote.

There is no indication that the Chinese government is turning off the taps

Chandrashekaran told the Post Wednesday the emails reflect early discussions on how to manage risk. Yves Tiberghien, a political science professor and executive director of the UBC China Council, said as far as he knew, there was “broadly no impact” on enrolment from China. He added that enrolment from India is growing the fastest.

Evans agreed, saying: “There is no indication that the Chinese government is turning off the taps, though if relations take a turn for the worse that is a future possibility.”

At the start of the new year, Evans wrote to colleagues that he anticipated a “rough ride in Canada-China relations for at least the next year” and that university exchanges with China were going to be “more difficult because of darker public feelings about China,” as well as “national security and techno-nationalism pressures, and creeping worries about Chinese sharp power and influence in key institutions including universities.”

In a separate email, Evans wrote that UBC needed to be “alert to a range of new concerns and risks.”

“The most immediate relate to safety issues for our students in China, the potential impact on student recruitment, and financial implications in the event of termination of Huawei-sponsored research.”