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Call them the bullies of Greenwich Village.
Two weeks from now, without so much as a parting wing from the campus Chick-fil-A outpost, New York University is booting heroic Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng — he says for the crime of dissing China.
So where are the protests?
At a pricy university chock-a-block with dilettantes, one that has no trouble drawing a mob to fight against perceived corporate greed via Occupy Wall Street, it’s hard to find anyone willing to speak out for one of their own.
“People are afraid,” said Alice, a Chinese national who was one of very few who would speak on behalf of Chen. She declined to even give her last name.
Why so frightened?
“People just don’t want to get in trouble,” she said. At a speech Chen delivered in May, “some students were afraid even to come.”
“I think they are afraid someone would write names down and take pictures and they’d get in trouble when they come back to China. People are afraid they will not be able to get a job.”
As The Post’s James Covert first reported, NYU this month is ending the academic fellowship of Chen, 41, and evicting him, his wife and two kids (he had a second in defiance of China’s one-child policy) from campus housing.
Chen maintains — and NYU denies — that the university is kicking him to the curb under intense pressure from the Chinese government, which could derail NYU’s potentially profitable satellite campus in Shanghai, set to open in the fall.
NYU spokesman John Beckman insists the university promised to keep Chen for only a year.
But, apparently, NYU’s relationship with China is quite cozy indeed. And in China, the blind scholar is radioactive, due to his outspoken opposition to forced abortions, which occur under the country’s policy limiting couples to bearing one child only.
He’s also drawn superfans worldwide, including actors Christian Bale and Richard Gere. Apparently, Hollywood has limited influence on Greenwich Village.
Last year, Chen staged a dramatic escape from Chinese house arrest to the US Embassy in Beijing, with the help of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Last spring, NYU was thrilled to give its big fish, a self-taught lawyer, a prestigious fellowship.
Then things went sour.
“As early as last August and September, the Chinese Communists had already begun to apply great, unrelenting pressure on New York University,” he said last month.
“So much so that after we had been in the United States just three to four months, NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with us.”
Chen’s predicament has drawn the attention of Nobel laureate and anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu of South Africa. He wrote in The Huffington Post that NYU’s perceived bow to China “will signify a serious tumble in stature for the university,” which also has a campus in Abu Dhabi.
“Chinese pressure on the South African government resulted in His Holiness the Dalai Lama being denied a visa to attend my 80th birthday party’’ in 2011, Tutu wrote. “They have gone so far as to have Chinese embassies contact film festivals and request that films critical of China be pulled from the festival. And they have rewarded those influential individuals who do their bidding handsomely.”
Several students I approached seemed startled when I mentioned Chen, and declined to speak. Another, Sean, told me that people understand when it’s time to keep quiet.
I contacted the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, whose membership exceeds 2,000. No one got back to me. It was the same with the Chinese Student Society.
I sense a pattern.
“I think he is a really honest and brave man,” said Alice. “I think he was fooled by the school.
“He thought the States would be a better place to speak freely.”
He was wrong.
Fortunately, he’s negotiating for a place in another university by the July 15 deadline.
New York University should be ashamed.
Alec one big sorry excuse
Someone slap a straitjacket on Alec Baldwin’s tweeting thumbs.
The Bloviator unleashed a scary, seemingly homophobic, Twitter tirade Thursday, the day after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, guaranteeing federal benefits to same-sex married couples.
The liberal actor went caveman on a reporter, tweeting that he’d “put my foot up your [bleeping] ass,’’ adding, “but I’m sure you’d dig it too much.’’
“I’m gonna find you,’’ he ranted, “you toxic little queen, and I’m gonna [bleep] you up.’’
Daily Mail scribe George Stark invoked the rageaholic’s wrath by posting online that Alec’s pregnant wife, Hilaria Thomas, tweeted during actor James Gandolfini’s funeral. The tweets apparently were sent after she left.
Alec later deleted his Twitter account, denied to Gothamist.com that “queen’’ was a gay slur, and apologized to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
There’s no excuse for such vile language, Alec. Get help.
Rich to Citi Bike: Pedal it elsewhere
What do these properties have in common: media mogul Barry Diller’s IAC corporate headquarters in Chelsea, a West Soho co-op where actor John Slattery of “Mad Men’’ lives, a Midtown East condo that’s home to a millionaire?
They’re among at least 10 buildings from which bike stations were quietly moved, just before or after the bike-share program started in May, The Post reported. Some racks were moved after legal threats. Others disappeared after a call was made to the right city honcho.
“I’ve been disappointed to see Citi Bike stations moved in wealthier neighborhoods,’’ said lawyer Jim Walden, who filed an injunction on behalf of community groups fighting a station at Soho’s Petrosino Square.
There is hope, depending on whom you know.
Custody madness
My heart breaks for Kelly Rutherford, who played Lily van der Woodsen on TV’s (now canceled) “Gossip Girl.’’
Kelly, 44, filed for divorce from her German husband, Daniel Giersch, in 2009. Then his visa was revoked, and Giersch was banned from setting foot in the United States. But in what has to be the most insane ruling ever made on American soil, a California judge decided in August that Kelly must travel to France, where her ex now lives, to see her New York-bred kids, Hermes, 6, and Helena, 4.
“I’m just trying to keep myself together,’’ Kelly told me in the fall.
Now she’s filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, after spending $1.5 million in legal fees and plunging into debt.
The judge is supposed to issue a final custody ruling in September. Please, stop the madness!
We can have our cake!
Twinkies, which reputedly could withstand nuclear war — but nearly got whacked by unions — are on the rebound. Cupcakes, too.
Hostess, which went bankrupt after a strike last year, has sold its retro treats, which should be back on shelves this month.
Sorry, Mayor Bloomberg. Sugar is back!