CCP University Partnerships Established with US Universities (China)

Partnerships were formed between Wayne State University Law School and Beijing Normal University and the China University of Political Science and Law following a June 2013 trip to China by Wayne Law Interim Dean Jocelyn Benson, and a subsequent December 2013 visit by Wayne Law Associate Professor Paul Dubinsky, who served as director of graduate studies and primary facilitator of the partnerships.¹ A memorandum of understanding was signed with Beijing Normal University establishing a framework for Chinese law students to enroll in Wayne Law’s master of laws (LL.M.) degree program in U.S. law, with faculty exchanges at both institutions also in development.² Jocelyn Benson, who was appointed permanent dean of Wayne Law in June 2014, subsequently served as Michigan Secretary of State beginning in January 2019 and was named as a defendant in multiple post-2020 election lawsuits.³ Dubinsky also served as a panel moderator at the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne Law, moderating the “Sanctuary Cities: Immigration Law Meets Federalism” panel at the Levin Center’s November 10, 2017 national symposium, “Current Issues in Immigration Law: Detention, ‘Sanctuary Cities,’ and the ‘Travel Ban'” — a day-long event convening eighteen scholars from institutions including Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Michigan Law School to address Trump administration immigration policies that were direct outgrowths of the 2016 presidential election.⁴ Wayne Law’s Carl Levin Center separately hosted a “Post-Election Analysis” Zoom panel on November 10, 2020, featuring U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and former U.S. Representative Dave Trott (R-MI), moderated by Levin Center Director Jim Townsend.⁵ Although billed as a bipartisan forum, both panelists offered uniformly critical assessments of President Trump’s post-election conduct: Dingell characterized the congressional task as being to “minimize the damage that the president can do between now and when he gets sworn in on January 20th,”⁶ while Trott — the forum’s nominal Republican voice — described Trump as “acting like a spoiled baby,” characterized the administration’s refusal to authorize the GSA transition as making the United States “look like a banana republic,” accused the president of “using the Department of Justice as a political tool,” stated that Trump’s COVID response “was motivated singularly by his desire to get reelected,” and predicted Trump would “probably pardon his entire family and himself.”⁷ Townsend’s opening framing had itself pre-concluded that while “President Trump and many of his supporters continue to raise objections to the election’s outcome, it appears very likely that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.”